Looking to get a winning run going against a rival for the European places, let’s take a look at our Arsenal predicted lineup to face West Ham.
Mikel Arteta went with an unchanged Arsenal lineup in Saturday’s win over Southampton, but the performance was very much an improvement on the limp display away to Everton earlier in the week.
Critics may put that purely down to Southampton’s struggles at the back, with emergency loan goalkeeper Willy Caballero slotting in behind a changed defence due to suspensions and injuries.
Arsenal’s task is to show they can put in a similar performance against West Ham on Wednesday, and Arteta is likely to stick with a similar team to try and do it. Here’s our Arsenal predicted lineup to face West Ham United.
Goalkeeper
Another clean sheet for Aaron Ramsdale and another top performance from the summer signing suggests he’ll continue to keep his place in the team against West Ham.
Bernd Leno still hasn’t even returned to the matchday squad, so there’s little chance he’ll be starting on Wednesday. Arthur Okonkwo should make the bench again if Leno is still out.
Defence
Kieran Tierney’s return to the Arsenal team has been marked with a couple of assists, even if Nuno Tavares was showing good form before that. Tierney will likely keep his place on Wednesday.
The rest of the back four remain very predictable. Mikel Arteta has confirmed Gabriel Magalhaes didn’t pick up an injury against Southampton, he was simply withdrawn as he was on a yellow card, so he’ll start alongside Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu.
Midfield
Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey looked much better in the Southampton game than they had against Everton, and Arteta will hope they’re getting back into a rhythm together. You’d expect both to start, particularly for a big game like this.
Ahead of them, Martin Odegaard is making himself difficult to drop with three goals in his last three games. He seems as likely to start as anyone right now, particularly with Emile Smith Rowe still working his way back in after injury.
Forwards
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang continues to be absent for disciplinary reasons, after having the club captaincy stripped from him this week.
Alexandre Lacazette may now have won his place after finally ending Arsenal’s centre-forward goal drought against the Saints.
On the wings, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka played well enough to retain their spots as well. Smith Rowe will be pushing to reclaim the wide-left role from Martinelli, but there’s no rush to put him back in when Martinelli is performing like this.
Arsenal predicted lineup vs West Ham
