“This is a tricky one for Arsenal” - Chris Sutton makes confident prediction as Gunners prepare to face West Ham
Former England international Chris Sutton has made his prediction for the Premier League clash between Arsenal and West Ham United at the Emirates on Thursday (December 28).
The Gunners are top of the table after 18 games and coming off a hard-fought 1-1 draw at Liverpool in their previous outing last weekend. Gabriel Magalhaes gave the visitors the lead inside four minutes before Mohamed Salah restored parity for the Reds in the 29th minute.
Meanwhile, West Ham are coming off a heartening 2-0 home win over struggling Manchester United at the weekend to move to sixth in the standings. Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus scored in six second-half minutes to hand the Red Devils their 13th loss of the campaign across competitions, including eight in the league.
Ahead of the Hammers' trip to the league leaders, Sutton reckons West Ham are playing well under David Moyes. Nevertheless, he's going with the Gunners to eke out a convincing home win, writing for the BBC:
"This is a tricky one for Arsenal. West Ham are in good form, up to sixth place in the table and always awkward to break down.
"Hammers boss David Moyes is so underrated and also seemingly unappreciated by some fans, no matter how well his side do. I think it is a case where they should be careful what they wish for.
He added:
"Still, I am going with Arsenal here. They are at home, where they have won their past seven matches in all competitions, and although West Ham will work hard, they won't keep them out. Sutton's prediction: 3-0"
Arsenal have conceded a joint league-low 16 league goals this campaign, while West Ham have conceded nearly double (30).
"There are some things we have to improve" - Arsenal boss after Liverpool draw
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta admits that his side are from the finished article after their draw at Liverpool at the weekend.
The Spaniard, though, said that the team deserve credit for taking the game to the opposition despite playing without key players but need to finish off games. Arteta said in his post-game press conference (as per Gunners' website):
"There are some things we have to improve, especially killing games with the amount of dominance that we are showing. Sometimes the results have been too close, where we have had to dig in the last few minutes to maintain results and that is it, nothing else.
"Hopefully, we have sustained that level with five key players out because we lost five very, very important players for us for many, many months and the team has still shown that so that is something we really have to maintain which is the quality in the squad and how willing they are to do what they do every single day.
Arteta's side are looking for their first league title since 2004.