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2024-25 Premier League: Week 26 – Arsenal vs West Ham

Arsenal continue their Premier League title challenge with a London derby at home to West Ham. 

Victory will see Arsenal cut their title deficit to Liverpool down to eight points, whilst West Ham could climb to 15th with a win if Manchester United lose in the lunchtime kick-off.

 

Team News

Arsenal have no fresh injury concerns to report following their 2-0 win at Leicester last weekend.

Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka (all hamstring), Gabriel Jesus and Takehiro Tomiyasu (both knee) remain absent.

West Ham could be without Vladimir Coufal for a second consecutive game after a hamstring injury forced him to miss their loss to Brentford.

Crysencio Summerville, Niclas Fullkrug (both hamstring), Lucas Paqueta (ankle) and Michail Antonio (leg) remain ruled out.

 

When is Kick-Off?

Arsenal host West Ham at Emirates Stadium on Saturday 22 February at 3pm GMT, untelevised live in the UK.

 

Stat Attack

 

Prediction

After Liverpool’s midweek slip-up at Aston Villa, Arsenal can’t afford to make their own blunder here because this is a huge opportunity to put the pressure on their title rivals – especially if they can be as defensively resilient as they were at Leicester with two clinical late sucker-punch goals.

West Ham meanwhile were punished by Brentford for a slow start and a lack of cutting-edge chances in their end product but their second-half effort offered some positivity, so I do think that Evan Ferguson and James Ward-Prowse must start here if they want any prospects of snatching any points.

Arsenal though should have more than enough grit to grind out the win but I don’t see this being a high-quality game given the Gunners’ injury issues, whilst West Ham will probably go defensive at least initially and try to counter-attack.

Prediction: Arsenal 1-0 West Ham

Result: Arsenal 0-1 West Ham

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