West Ham Preview: The win is vital 25 October, 2008

So from being so close to crisis, we’ve almost got everybody back fit. In the week I told you that Gallas and Toure were now fit but now Bacary Sagna even has a chance of playing. Wenger describes it only as “a small chance”, which to me translates as: ‘He is fit, but maybe not 100%’. So I don’t see him starting tomorrow against West Ham, he could make the bench but I expect he’ll be saved for Tottenham next week.

With Sagna pretty much back that means it’s only Rosicky and Eduardo (who is back next month) out now.

After a fantastic performance against Fenerbahce, Almunia will be wanting to keep the armband but I’m afraid with Gallas’ return he’ll have to hand it back. It’s been a controversial week for the regular captain as he was caught smoking a cigarette (picture) whilst out one night in the week. Wenger has responded to it saying it is unacceptable and irresponsible, especially for someone who is supposed to be captain of the club.

Gallas himself admits he’s not been great recently and I think this whole smoking thing isn’t going to help his case. If it were up to me, I’d drop Gallas and give the Silvestre/Toure combination a chance. It’s never going to happen, whatever Gallas does Wenger still sicks with him. I don’t know what it’s going to take for him to lose the captaincy.

The formation in Turkey worked really well for us, but that was an away match in the Champions League, for which we are famous for working the 4-5-1. It would be tempting to keep it the same for tomorrow’s trip to Upton Park but I think we’ll resort to the traditional 4-4-2. I see van Persie coming back in alongside Adebayor which would mean we could always resort to a 5-man midfield if it wasn’t working.

Here’s how I see us lining up:

Almunia
Eboue – Toure – Gallas (c) – Clichy
Walcott – Fabregas – Diaby – Nasri
Adebayor – van Persie

If it were up to me, Gallas would be nowhere near the side and I’d have Silvestre in there. And I’d give the captaincy to Almunia again, I’d really like to Cesc have it but at the moment I’m all for Manuel as skipper.

I hope Diaby keeps his place in the side. He also had a good game in Turkey so I don’t see why he wouldn’t be in there. He was substituted off early in the week which I suspect was to save him for tomorrow. Denilson hasn’t been great recently but with the competition for a place now with Diaby they’ll both improve.

If we wanted to go 4-5-1 then van Persie would just slot on the left of that midfield and Nasri would go into his more preferred central position.

West ham haven’t been in great form recently. When Zola took over they looked good but they’ve lost their last two against Bolton and Hull. We shouldn’t take anything from that though because we know West Ham will always be up for a London derby.

As always with the Hammers, they are ridden with injuries. They have Tristan, Ashton, Dyer, Spector and Gabbidon all out who will be missed.

They will be hard to beat though whatever team they put out, and with England International and Ex-Arsenal Matthew Upson at the heart of their defense. Arsene Wenger says he would’ve loved to have kept Upson but just couldn’t keep him in the reserves for years and years until he developed. Arsene admires his work and is in no way surprised that Upson has made a decent top-flight career. The manager goes on to talk about how telling a young player that they have to move on is one of the hardest parts of management.

It’s a 4pm kick off tomorrow and live on Sky Sports. I’m really looking forward to the game, I might go into Bournemouth and find a pub to watch the game or just pick it up on the internet at home. A good result is vital with United dropping two points today and with Chelsea playing Liverpool tomorrow. However, with Spurs coming up on Wednesday a bad result tomorrow might spark a few nerves going into the North London Derby.

Thanks for reading.

COME ON YOU GUNNERS!