West Ham travel to face Arsenal in the Premier League

National World - LocalTV

A preview for the clash between two London sides.

Transcript

00:00James, looking ahead to Arsenal away for West Ham. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but doing

00:06some scrolling, it looks like the last time West Ham got some points at the Emirates was

00:102015, which was all three of them in a 2-0 win. And ever since then, I mean, you scroll

00:17through, it sort of looks like Arsenal score a lot of goals in this fixture and they already

00:21did in the reverse one this season. What are your sort of thoughts going into this game

00:25for West Ham's perspective? How are they going to set up? They've obviously got some tough

00:30opponents to come after that as well. Tough run, you know, the likes of Newcastle Everton

00:34and now he informed David Moyes. I mean, it's a difficult situation for them. How do you

00:40sort of see them going into this one?

00:42Well, we actually won there last season in the Premier League, 2-0. I think it was last

00:47season. So, but then I think before then it was 2015. We don't get much luck at the Emirates.

00:55That one in 2015 was on the Stadham Village. I think it was the first game of the season.

00:59It was a great season that. But, you know, everyone knows how good Arsenal have been

01:04over the last two or three years. And despite them having so many injury problems and no

01:12recognised striker in the squad, they're still going to pose an incredible problem for us

01:17at the weekend and one that Grandpa is going to need to try and work out. I'm kind of,

01:22I'm hopeful that, you know, they huffed and puffed against Leicester last weekend and

01:27had to rely on makeshift striker Mikel Mourinho to bail them out of trouble. They cannot afford

01:32to drop points because of the title race with Liverpool. And I just wonder whether that

01:37pressure and, you know, they're going to feel hard done by given the injury problems that

01:40they've had. The pressure and the injury problems, you know, is this going to be one game

01:47too many for them? I don't know. I'd like to think, you know, we can go there and probably

01:50cause them a little bit of problem. But we've got our own problems as well. You know, we're

01:56still getting used to what the new manager wants. And we've got players out of form. We've still

02:00got key injuries. Like we've already said, Piquet is injured. So it's going to be difficult for us.

02:05But I think if there's ever a time to be able to go to the Emirates and Arsenal and get something

02:11and maybe cause an upset, then it's this weekend, I think. And I think if we can go there and get

02:18a point, I think that'll prove to be a fantastic, fantastic result. But given what we did last year,

02:24we went there, we sat back, we scored two goals in the counter-attack. I think one was a corner

02:29and came away with all three points in a clean sheet. Whether it goes like that this year,

02:35I'm not too confident of that. But you just never know, do you? This season especially has been

02:42a strange one with some strange results. So I wouldn't put it past West Ham to go there and get

02:47something. But I think Arsenal are favourites for a reason. And it wouldn't surprise me if it went

02:51the other way. And it was a very, very comprehensive victory for them.

02:56Yes, thanks for correcting me there. I mean, just in terms of West Ham's next win, where do you

03:02sort of see it coming from? Because we mentioned how important the home form was. They couldn't

03:05get the job done against Brentford. They do host Leicester and Newcastle, then away to Everton

03:11and Wolves. I mean, it's not the worst-looking run-in so far, but it could be kinder, especially

03:18when you are struggling to really get going under a new manager.

03:22Yes, exactly. And the defeat to Brentford last weekend has just added that little bit of extra

03:28pressure on needing a win and a win quickly. It doesn't help that following that is a trip to

03:33Arsenal. But as you said, the fixture list kind of does get a little bit kinder. Leicester at home,

03:40we should be looking at that going, okay, well, that should be three points. And if you win that

03:44one, even if you do lose at Arsenal, you're just adding a little bit more of a gap between

03:48yourselves and the bottom three. Newcastle at home following that, they haven't travelled well

03:53all season. So there's an opportunity there. We went to James' park earlier this season and won.

03:59So there's an opportunity there, even though Newcastle are looking for a top six finish,

04:04potentially even a top four finish still. We'll go into that with a little bit of confidence.

04:11If we don't beat Leicester before then, then I think it'll be a completely different story.

04:16And then after that, Everton away. I mean, Everton away about a month ago would have felt

04:20like a bit of a formality for us. But now given it's up against our old manager,

04:24who started well, David Morris, he's done a brilliant job at Everton since returning.

04:29It's going to be a very interesting game. And I don't have any confidence of going to

04:32Goodison Park now. Now we can see what he's doing there. And he's going to want to get

04:36one over us, obviously. And there'll be fans, there'll be a lot of fans in the West Ham fan

04:42base that will want to get one over him, I'm sure. So the next few fixtures are tough, but

04:49I think it's just a case of just every game as it comes now. I think all West Ham are playing for

04:54this season is pride. Essentially, we're not, we've got nothing to play for. I don't think

04:59we're going to go down. So we just want to finish high up the table as possible. I think a top 10

05:04finish is probably beyond our reach now after we've lost to Brentford. And Brentford have kind

05:09of got a five or six point gap over us now. So it's just about trying to just, you know,

05:14if we can finish above Tottenham, I think that's one of the ones that a lot of West Ham fans are

05:18looking at. They're having a poor season. They're down there with us for once. Maybe a lot of West

05:23Ham fans go, OK, well, all we're playing for now is finish above Tottenham and we'll be happy.

05:27It'll be a successful season for us.

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