On Monday, December 26, at the Emirates Stadium in London, the match of the seventeenth round of the English Premier League in football will take place, in which London’s Arsenal and West Ham will play. The starting whistle of referee Michael Oliver from Ashington will sound at 22:00 Kyiv time.
Arsenal
The phenomenal progress of the London Arsenal in the first part of the current Premier League draw could not be ignored, as Mikel Arteta’s team climbed to the top of the standings, created a comfortable lead over their pursuers, and now feel quite confident before the start of the most intense part of the season. Five points advantage over Manchester City allows the Gunners to allow minor blots, without which it will be difficult to imagine the performance of any team whose players played at the World Cup in Qatar. Moreover, Arsenal almost immediately faced the fact of a knee injury in the absolute leader of the attacking line, Gabriel Jesus, and it was impossible to make up for the loss due to the closed transfer window.
Arteta in such conditions will have to urgently come up with something in terms of rotation, since his team has matches against Brighton and Tottenham away on the calendar, as well as games against Newcastle and Manchester United at home, which until the end of January, with a break for participation in the FA Cup against Oxford. Moreover, in February, Arsenal will also add the Europa League, so in such conditions, even the transfer of Mikhail Mudrik from Shakhtar Donetsk looks like a completely logical step for the Londoners. Arteta’s team played several friendlies during the international break, most notably at the Emirates against Juventus, which the hosts lost due to two own goals (0-2).
West Ham
London “West Ham” has the opportunity to start the season in the most ugly way, ending up somewhere in the basement of the standings, but in the end, the management will still not lose confidence in the Scottish specialist David Moyes, and he will continue to work in a situation where a good half Premier League coaches would have long been in line at the labor exchange. However, the fabulous injections of almost $ 200 million, which did not bring the desired result, still continue to find some justification among fans with really “iron” nerves.
West Ham finished the first part of the season in 16th place and will have to go twice as long before climbing to at least 14th position as before the relegation zone. In this context, the Hammers are planning an active winter transfer campaign, and perhaps if the upcoming match took place in a month or two, we would see a London derby with a Ukrainian touch and Ruslan Malinovsky in the lead role. Moyes needs fresh blood also because ahead of his team will have time right up to the beginning of February and matches against Brentford, Leeds, Wolverhampton and Everton in order to correct their deplorable situation.
Estimated compositions
Arsenal: Ramsdale – Tierney, Gabriel, Saliba, White – Party, Xhaka – Martinelli, Edegor, Saka – Nketia.
“West Ham”: Fabianski – Emerson, Ogbonna, Dawson, Kerer – Soucek, Rice – Benrahma, Package, Fornals – Bowen.
Will not play: Jesus, Zinchenko, Nelson – Zuma.
Forecast for confrontation
We believe that Arteta’s team will continue their victorious path in the upcoming match. Our bet will be the position – Handicap. Arsenal (-1) with a coefficient of 1.84 on the Parimatch line.
December 26, Monday
Arsenal – West Ham
London. Emirates. 22:00 Live TV broadcast – Setanta video service
Arbitrator: Michael Oliver (Ashington, England) Forecast Aroged – 2:0
