West Ham head coach Julen Lopetegui could be planning a defensive switch to counter Arsenal’s formidable set-play ability.
Mikel Arteta’s Gooners have mastered set-pieces to perfection this season, earning a reputation as nearly unstoppable.
West Ham, in contrast, have not been as potent. However, we finally enjoyed some set-piece success against Newcastle, with Emerson’s corner expertly converted by Tomas Soucek.
At the other end of the pitch, though, the Hammers will need to be cautious. For that reason, Lopetegui might not rush Jean-Clair Todibo back from the knock that forced him off during the Irons’ 2-0 win at St James’ Park.
With Arsenal likely to launch an aerial bombardment, the West Ham boss could start former Gunner Konstantinos Mavropanos instead.
Max Kilman has made the third-most headed clearances in the Premier League this season, offering valuable protection to the defence. While Mavropanos hasn’t played enough games to rank in the top ten for headed clearances, his contested header win ratio is among the best in the league.
As such, Lopetegui may give Todibo one more game off and rely on Mavropanos to neutralise the set-piece threat posed by Arsenal’s Gabriel.
It all depends which West Ham team turn up, if they can stop giving the ball away they might have a chance 🙏.
Arsenal will come at us from the first whistle and will look to have won the game by half time I know we looked good against Newcastle but they didn’t play well at all however Arsenal are a title chasing team and we had better be prepared for the onslaught if we hold our own against them and lucky enough to get a draw then we can say things are looking good but if it’s a case of how many they are going to score then it’s clear there is no real improvement and that the Newcastle game was a one off let’s hope we can overcome Arsenal big ask I know but football is a funny old game COYI
I thought I read on here that Todibo was suffering from a stomach upset, not a knock.
God help us.
We’re on a roll, third clean sheet coming up. Playing for each other and enjoying it. Iron’s