Is West Ham the perfect away game for Arsenal?

After drawing 2-2 at Anfield, Arsenal will be desperate to bounce back to winning ways this weekend, and while there is no easy game in the Premier League, West Ham could be the perfect destination for an away game.

While Arsenal’s season has exceeded expectations, West Ham’s has gone the opposite way after an impressive summer window which saw them retain their top talents and shrug off competition to land Lucas Paquetá and Gianluca Scamacca.

Despite some good moments, neither have delivered consistently and established players such as Tomáš Souček, Vladimír Coufal and Pablo Fornals have seen their level drop to unimaginable lows, leaving West Ham firmly locked in a relegation battle.

At Upton Park, this would have led to Arsenal going to a tight, intense ground with the crowd on top of them trying to create an intimidating atmosphere. But, West Ham lost that when they moved to the London Stadium, and instead find themselves playing in a fairly passive environment, with the fans a significant distance from the pitch.

And, then there’s the pitch itself. It is a big pitch, similar to the Emirates. It’s the kind of pitch that top teams thrive on because they can move the ball quickly and create space for pacey attackers to exploit. And, it is also the kind of pitch that out-of-form, relegation candidates, who can easily be dragged out of position, hate playing on.

Is West Ham the perfect away game for Arsenal?

This season, they have won just six of their 15 games at home, drawing three and losing six, including a 5-1 defeat to Newcastle just two weeks ago, who exploited all of their defensive frailties and took advantage of their lack of energy around the park, particularly in midfield with Souček attempting just nine passes in 60 minutes.

That lack of energy has been a problem all season, with Declan Rice carrying them in midfield, and with a game against Genk in the Europa Conference League, they aren’t going to be the freshest going into a game against a hungry Arsenal team.

They also have an issue with goals and ball retention. This season, they sit 16th in the league for goals scored, with just 27 in 29 games, compared to Arsenal who are second with 72 goals from 30 games, and they average 42% possession, sitting 17th for total passes, compared to Arsenal, who average 60.8% possession with the fourth highest pass count.

These numbers do not bode well for West Ham, especially when you consider that Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard are all in electric form, and both Saka and Martinelli made light work of their backline when the sides met in December.

Arsenal’s high press will cause West Ham problems. There’s no doubt about it. Newcastle exposed them heavily, and the Gunners have much more creativity than Eddie Howe’s side. If things click on Sunday as expected, it could be an extremely difficult afternoon for West Ham.