The Gunners managed to end their losing streak with a 3-1 win against Southampton at the Emirates last Saturday. Three points last Saturday has taken them to sixth place on the table with 26 points, just one point behind Manchester United in fifth. After leaking five goals in their two matches prior to Southampton, Arteta’s defense appears to have restored some order by not conceding any goals in their last match. It remains to be seen if they will be able to remain tight in their upcoming fixtures or if it was just a one off for the defense, but considering their goal count is relatively low compared to the teams in the Top 5 they are going to need to rely on a good defensive effort from here on should they wish to continue moving up the table. Despite finding the net three times against the Saints, Arsenal are still averaging just 1.3 goals per match and have only netted a total of 21 goals this season. Fifteen of those goals have come at home and with just two more home games for the Gunners this year, they will look to up their goal tally before the new year on Wednesday and also put in a good defensive effort against a West Ham team that’s looking very dangerous right now. Prior to last week Arsenal lost 2-1 away to Everton, lost 3-2 away to Manchester United, won 2-0 at home to Newcastle and lost 4-0 away to Liverpool.
After arguably their biggest win of the season against Chelsea just over 10 days ago, the Hammers had a rather disappointing outing to Turf Moor where they played to a 0-0 last weekend. As a result of their draw with Burnley the gap between themselves and Chelsea has widened on the table, but they are still hanging on to fourth place and have 28 points. However, the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal are slowly catching up and a loss or a draw on Wednesday could see them slipping out of the Top 4 for the first time in eight rounds of football. Although West Ham are playing amazing football right now it appears that as of late they are performing the best in front of their home fans. They have failed to pick up three points in their last three away EPL matches with the last win coming at Villa Park at the end of October, while at home they have won three out of their last four EPL matches. This is a bit worrying for the Hammers and Wednesday night’s clash would be a great opportunity to restore their away form and show that they can take down the top teams while on the road as well. Some of West Ham’s other recent results include a 1-1 draw at home to Brighton, a 2-1 loss away to Manchester City and a 1-0 loss away to Wolves.
When looking at the last five clashes between the two sides Arsenal has done the best with three wins, West Ham have one win and the other match ended in a draw. The last time the teams met was at the London Stadium in March when they played to a 3-3 draw. The last time the Hammers managed to defeat Arsenal was back in the 2018/19 at the London Stadium, while their last victory at the Emirates was all the way back in the 2015/16 season. The Gunners certainly have a very solid record at home against West Ham and when looking at the club’s records over the last 25 years you will see that West Ham have only managed four victories on Arsenal’s turf.
Prediction
Although West Ham have been able to pull off big results against big names this season they have only managed to do so at home in front of their fans. With no goals in their last two matches across all leagues their seems to be a bit of a drop in momentum since their win against Chelsea and I believe this will affect them negatively on Wednesday night. Arsenal on the other hand picked up a confidence-boosting win on the weekend and also showed that their defense is back to where it should be. Once you factor in that West Ham have only netted once in their last three EPL away matches and that they have an extremely poor record at the Emirates, then it becomes very difficult to expect any result other than an Arsenal win. Arsenal to win is available at around even money, but if you are looking for some extra value you can go for Arsenal to win and over 2.5 goals which is not a bad option considering that there have been over 2.5 goals in five of the last seven clashes between the two teams. Martin Odegaard has now scored in Arsenal’s last three matches and seems to be the most consistent goalscorer for his side right now so I will have a go at him to score a goal in the match.
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