Angelo Ogbonna says West Ham need to concentrate if they want to take points off the Gunners on Wednesday night.

West Ham pushed Manchester City to the wire in a 2-1 loss before beating Chelsea 1-0, which shows they’re greatly improving in recent weeks.

Ogbonna scored against City and was the central defender as the Hammers kept that clean sheet against Chelsea. He also scored the winner against Spurs in the League Cup earlier this season.

But the centre-back says the team need to forget all that and just focus on the task ahead of them. “We are already confident – we did really well against Manchester City,” he told Whufc.com. “We didn’t get any points that day, but we deserved the result against Chelsea.

Ogbonna
West Ham United’s Italian defender Angelo Ogbonna celebrates scoring the team’s third goal during the English League Cup fourth round football match between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United at Wembley Stadium in London, on October 25, 2017. / Picture: IAN KINGTON/AFP/Getty Images

“We are looking at the present, not at what happened today or yesterday. We have to concentrate and step ahead again [when we play Arsenal].

“We did a really great job against Chelsea, not just in defending but for everyone. The way Michail Antonio ran in behind was fantastic for us, and for me personally, it was a huge game.

“We’ll need the fans with us too, like they always are. We saw great support from the fans against Leicester and Chelsea and it’s really important to have them behind us.”

West Ham still currently sit in the relegation zone, and Crystal Palace’s last gasp comeback on Tuesday has pushed the Hammers even further down the table to 19th.

They’re only a win away from ending the day outside the bottom three, however, assuming other results go their way. So they’ll have just as much motivation to win the match as Arsenal do.

The Gunners need a victory to get themselves back in the top-four, or at least in the top-five to keep the pressure on Liverpool. The recent loss to Manchester United and draw with Southampton have made this game all the more important.

Wenger’s side will hope this game is less like West Ham’s last two matches against big-six opposition, and more like the 5-1 loss they suffered to the Gunners last season.