Nuno Espírito Santo gets a ‘free hit’ tomorrow as his side have one daunting away game across London against aspiring Premier League winners (one day, maybe) Arsenal. Choosing to begin his tenure as Hammers boss with two tough away fixtures, the Portugese manager showed great character by jumping straight in rather than waiting until the international break before assuming control at West Ham.
The two previous defeats which the Irons have inflicted on Mikel Arteta still sting. As per irishnews.com the Gunners boss said:”
“That’s what we want, to continue to play and flow and dominate games in the manner that we are doing. It’s going to be a key fixture. We learned in the last two seasons as well because we had two defeats against them here and it’s something that we need to put right and tomorrow is another opportunity to do that. We’re going to have to play against a new manager and we know Nuno really well, the way he sets up his team.”
And then Arteta rather confirms that his side will be going for it from minute one:
“It’s about generating momentum. There are periods in the season that are critical and tomorrow’s game is a really important one for us. That’s why from the beginning we need to generate that and go for it, because after we have a two-week break with the international week.”
Which would have had Potter’s West Ham contemplating a cricket score by half time. New boss Nuno’s style is to sit deep and hit on the counter attack, as we saw in the second half against Everton. So whilst they Irons will have a lot of backs-to-the-wall defending to do, Espírito Santo will be telling his forwards that the Gunners will be a tad vulnerable to pacy counter attacking.
Or so we hope!
My worries for us is we have 2 central defenders who are unable to defend set pieces and a keeper who stays on his line. Arsenal have players who are good headers of the ball which is a worry. Now if our problem was how they were told by the defence coaches and we see a improvement remains to be seen