Arsenal will be looking to get one over their London rivals when they travel to West Ham in the EFL Cup. Both teams won their third-round matchups, with the Irons edging off Lincoln City and Mikel Arteta’s team just defeating Brentford.
Preview (West Ham United vs Arsenal)
If recent performance is any indication, West Ham’s chances of adding domestic hardware to their Europa Conference League title from the previous season are slim to none. They have yet to add an EFL Cup trophy to their collection. They had only advanced to the final once in 1981. The hosts’ impressive start to the campaign is now history as they go winless for the first four games. David Moyes’s team worked hard to defeat their third-tier opponents, Lincoln City.
A 2-2 draw with Newcastle United was admirable, but defeats by Aston Villa (4-1), Olympiacos (2-1) in the Europa League, and Everton (1-0) at home—who fought valiantly and took all three points thanks to a goal from Dominic Calvert-Lewin—have raised some red flags. In addition to going five games across all competitions without keeping a clean sheet, West Ham’s inability to breach the opposition defense in their home match against Everton was a first for the Hammers in 2023; prior to that, the team had failed to breach the opposition backline in eighteen consecutive games at the London Stadium.
The West Ham fans may or may not welcome the £105 million player back to his former home, but juggling three competitions during a harsh winter seems to be catching up to the Declan Rice-less team. Nevertheless, juggling domestic and continental duties hasn’t proven to be a major issue for their in-form visitors thus far. The Gunners were treated to two man-of-the-match performances from their two best attackers. First, Gabriel Jesus took center stage against Sevilla. Then, injury problems returned, forcing the Brazilian to give Eddie Nketiah the offensive reins for Sheffield United’s visit.
Team News
Although Lucas Paqueta and Eduardo Alvarez received milestone cards in the match against Everton. The latter goes into the book unfairly for a vocal outburst. Their suspensions will instead be carried over to Saturday’s Premier League match against Brentford. Both players will be available on Wednesday. Emerson Palmieri received five yellow cards, and will be released from the naughty step. It will make room for Alvarez and Paqueta. As a result, Moyes will have a full roster for the upcoming fourth round.
Despite the quality of the opposition, rotation is almost certainly in the cards for the hosts. Two former Gunners in the back in Lukasz Fabianski and Dinos Mavropanos. Additionally, third-round match winner Soucek is likely to make a comeback to the starting lineup. However, long-term ACL casualty Jurrien Timber is still being cared for by the Arsenal physios, and it has now been revealed that Jesus (hamstring) and the injury-plagued Thomas Partey (muscle) will be out of commission for a few weeks at least.
Though the crushing of Sheffield United hasn’t raised any new worries, Arteta will also give plenty of second-string players, like José Gomes, Fabio Vieira, Reiss Nelson, and possibly Mohamed Elneny, chances. Former Hammers captain Rice should relegated to the bench at his old haunt. After rejecting calls to reinstate the previous goalkeeping hierarchy, Arteta ought to start Aaron Ramsdale again in place of David Raya, after the Englishman produced several game-winning saves in the victory over Brentford in the third round.
West Ham United 0 – 2 Arsenal
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