West Ham vs Arsenal preview: How to watch, predicted lineups, score prediction & injury updates

Arsenal Team News vs West Ham

Arteta provided a welcome update following the defeat to Olympiacos, insisting there were fresh injury concerns after the Europa League tie. That does not, however, account for fatigue.

Granit Xhaka has now played 90 minutes in a remarkable 13 consecutive fixtures, a run that seems to be finally taking its toll on him. Evident in Thursday’s game was tiredness in the Swiss, who even began showing early signs as soon as the 40-minute mark.

The same applies to Kieran Tierney, who was an interesting choice, shall we say, to play the full 90 considering there were five substitutes to be had and Arteta preferred a more pragmatic setup. However, both are near irreplaceable in the side and will likely start once more.

Bukayo Saka and Willian are the concerns heading into Sunday. The former is facing a race against time to recover from a hamstring problem and having not been in the squad for Thursday it would constitute a big risk starting him against West Ham. Willian was dealing with a calf issue that kept him out, but has trained since so should be OK.

In central defence, Gabriel and David Luiz started another game together, hinting that it may be a complete reshuffle to face the Hammers. It wouldn’t be surprising to see both Pablo Mari and Rob Holding come in.

Gabriel Martinelli did what Gabriel Martinelli does best during his short cameo on Thursday, making a statement outing that has him in contention to start, perhaps even in front of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who was awful on the night.

As for the hosts, Moyes revealed no changes from their last outing, so Pablo Fornals, Angelo Ogbonna, Arthur Masuaku and Andriy Yarmolenko will once again sit out.