Arsenal – West Ham

Arsenal and West Ham will each try to break a slump of their own, as the two teams square off at Emirates on Wednesday evening.

The Gunners are going trough one of the most difficult periods in recent years and missing out of the Top 4 is becoming a real possibility. Arsenal’s only wins in the last 7 matches came against non league sides Sutton and Lincoln in the Fa Cup, and this poor run of games included a number of horrible losses – 2-10 aggregate against Bayern, 1-3 against Liverpool or 1-2 at home to Watford. On the bright side Arsenal showed some improvement over the weekend in a 2-2 home draw with Man City, even if the performance was still far from great.

14th placed West Ham is riding a 4 match losing streak and another defeat would get them involved in the relegation mix. The Hammers would surely be desperate to avoid a 5th straight loss, but they have conceded 2 or more goals in each of the previous 4 defeats and a visit at Emirates doesn`t look promising right now.

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Team news & lineups:

Perez, Cech, Cazorla and probably Koscielny will not play for Arsenal, while Ramsey and Oxlade Chamberlain are doubtful. West Ham won`t be able to count on Ogbonna, Obiang, Sakho and Reid. Also, Antonio and Cresswell are doubtful.

Arsenal: Ospina – Bellerin, Mustafi, Gabriel, Monreal – Coquelin, Xhaka – Wallcot, Ozil, Sanchez – Welbeck (Giroud)

West Ham United: Randolph – Bryam, Fonte, Collins, Masuaku – Kouyate, Noble – Antonio, Snodgrass, Lanzini – Carroll

There`s no doubt that Arsenal is struggling and that the atmosphere around the team is poor. However, they did have an incredibly difficult schedule over the last month or so, which only now is starting to open up. Hosting this out of shape West Ham team, which can not stop anybody from scoring, looks like the perfect opportunity for Arsenal to get back on track – particularly given the (small) improvement they showed over the weekend against Man City.

Arsenal won 11 of the last 13 meetings against West Ham, including 5-1 at the Olympic stadium when the two teams met earlier this season. A fair case can be made that Arsenal matches up well against the Hammers, even though West Ham’s only win in the last 13 outings did come here at the Emirates last season.

Given the fact that West Ham’s form is arguably even worse than Arsenal’s, and looking at the H2H record, it`s pretty reasonable to say that the bookies and general public are overreacting at Arsenal’s recent struggles.

I don`t believe Arsenal should be priced so high to win this, so my tip will be Arsenal to win with a -1 asian handicap. Anything other than a win would put a huge dent in their quest to finish Top 4 and West Ham really doesn`t look like the team to ruin Arsenal’s season.

Considering West Ham’s massive problems on the defensive end, Arsenal winning by 2 or more is a real possibility, but the asian handicap bet gives us a very useful safety net in case of a home win by just 1 goal. Prediction: Arsenal – West Ham United 3-0.

Pick: Arsenal (-1 Asian Handicap)
Odds: 1.65 @ 1xBet
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 5.20
Event date: 5 April