West Ham vs Arsenal: 4 pre-match discussions

2. How Heavily Will West Ham Rotate?

The result in midweek was a favourable one for Arsenal. Any scoreline by a narrow margin would be helpful, but to have it as West Ham narrowly losing and arguably playing better of the two teams is nigh-on perfect.

They have to throw everything they have at the second leg and that means resting their best players for Sunday. While a top six place is still on their agenda and very attainable, the biggest night in many of the players’, as well as Moyes’, career awaits. Their focus is elsewhere.

How heavily will they rotate, though?

It’s an interesting situation because the only senior central defender available to them can’t possibly play three games in a week considering how ahead of schedule he is from his injury return. Kurt Zouma played the full 90 minutes against Eintracht Frankfurt but was clearly struggling towards the end, and that could mean Declan Rice possibly moving into defence or them bringing an academy player into the fold in what could be a back three shape as they did against Chelsea.

Up front Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio could be moved to the bench, with Mark Noble or even Alex Kral coming into midfield.

It will be a changed team, but then surely momentum would be preferable for West Ham before Thursday? An interesting selection awaits.

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