West Ham Preview & Happy New Year! 31 December, 2007
Posted by lasagnechef in Premiership.trackback
We were all loving it when West Ham beat Manchester United at the weekend allowing us to sit back on top of our throne. However we’ve got to face them ourselves now, and they’ll be on a high. Not only have they just beaten least years Champions, but they still remain the only team to beat us as our new stadium, and they’ll be full of belief that they can do it again.
We’re not playing all too well at the moment either, despite our recent 4-1 win over Everton. We returned to the 4-4-2 formation at Goodison Park and I think we should stick with it at home. Eduardo got two goals with two great finishes and he has probably earned the right to start tomorrow’s game. Bendtner’s suspended now and Adebayor only got about 15 minutes in the last game so he should be raring to go too.
This is how I see us lining up tomorrow:
Sagna – Toure – Gallas (c) – Clichy
Eboue – Fabregas – Flamini – Rosicky
Adebayor – Eduardo
Edit: Sagna rested, Hoyte to start
I see Hleb being rested in this one. He’s played a lot recently and hasn’t had a rest so I think he might come back in. We might also rest one of the central midfielders and give Diarra a chance. Rosicky should start after being a late substitute on Saturday. Eboue and Walcott both missed the Everton game so we could see one of them come back in for this one too.
West Ham have a whole host of injury problems: Solano and Parker were both taken off against Man Utd but I don’t know how they’re doing now, they’re big players for them so it’d be good if they were out. Freddie Ljungberg has a hamstring problem and might miss the opportunity to return to Arsenal which would be a shame, I’m sure he’d get a fantastic reception for his years here.
Bellamy, Dyer and Bobby Zamora are all definitely out and Matthew Etherington and Lee Bowyer will be too short for tomorrow’s game too. I kind of feel sorry for them but they can still put out a decent side. It should be a good game tomorrow and hopefully we can do better than last season.
Just finally, Happy New Year from everyone here at The Cannon. Well I say everyone, it’s just me here, it’s a very lonely business. It’s been a good year for the site and just wanted to say thank you for everyone’s support and comments and everything. If you feel like ever suggesting anything to me to improve the site then my email can be found in the contact section at the top of the page.
Have a good night tonight, don’t get too drunk everyone…we’ve got football tomorrow. Thanks for reading.
just saw parker in harrods on crutches so i think we can rule him out
lasagnechef, well said and written … good reasoning too … a fan of the Gooners in Paris, who is unlucky not to have the match on show on TV tomorrow … ;-( thank goodness, there are some links on the Internet which are usually reliable and hope to catch the match … here’s to a fantastic Gooners win tomorrow 01/01/08 …
Good to see the Spuds languishing in mid-table at best … notched up a cricket score of a match against a half-decent Reading team (who gave us lots of respect top-down/bottom-up depending how you see it, unlike fish-face Moye$) we comfortably won 3-1 at The Madejski.
Here’s the 2008 best of luck to the Gooners !!! Long live The Arsenal !!!
a Diehard Gooners fan of 14 years …
All … I am back again … to repost the fact I am OVERJOYED to see that the Gooners match tomorrow 01/01/08 can be catched at 7 different places in France … SEVEN … that’s SEVENTH HEAVEN for Gooners fans in France … well well … all thanks to some persistent searching and for the benefits of all other Gooners fans in France … here’s the link …
http://www.allomatch.com/where-to-watch-the-games/football.html
ALLEZ LES ROUGES !!!
a Diehard Gooners fan of 14 years …
Quelqu’un a volé mon nom. Incroyable
now it becomes the hottest London derby of all recent times; b/se arsenal is the leader & west ham defeated manche. arse-1 w.ham-1 is enough for me.
Great article with lots of respect for the Hammers, Yeh we do have a makeshift team tomorrow with half of them playing out of natural positions, but we are a die hard bunch, and will give the Gunners a good game.
Happy New year to everyone, and enjoy the match tomorrow. My prediction 1-1.
CYI
COME ON YOU GUNNERS !
West Ham have almost a team and a half injured -
Nolberto Solano
Scott Parker
Craig Bellamy
Kieron Dyer
Bobby Zamora
Julien Faubert
Matthew Etherington
Lee Bowyer
Luis Boa Morta
Saying that, I think the most threat will be from set pieces. They got both goals against ManU from headers, one from a corner, the other a free kick.
Upson and Ferdinand scored. Up front they have Cole and Ashton, who are very tall and strong in the air. So thats at least 4 players taller than most of our squad who will be waiting at every crossing opportunity from a set piece.
If we dont concede silly fouls near the box or unnecessary corners, I think we should be ok.
Happy New Year Chef
Dimitrov is coming coming coming home !