Declan Rice, Vladimir Coufal and Jarrod Bowen remain with eight dropped – West Ham United confirmed starting XI vs Arsenal
David Moyes’ West Ham United starting XI for Arsenal’s visit to the London Stadium has been confirmed by the club.
Just captain Declan Rice, winger Jarrod Bowen and the resurgent Vladimir Coufal have kept their places from the draw at Gent on Thursday (13 April) as the manager has rung the changes for the visit of the title-chasers.
The four men introduced from the bench in Belgium, Lucas Paqueta, Michail Antonio, Said Benrahma and Aaron Cresswell all start in the Premier League.
Lukasz Fabianski is back in goal, with Thilo Kehrer and Kurt Zouma in the middle of defence and Cresswell on the left. Tomas Soucek partners Rice as so often while the attacking four is probably the strongest available.
Opportunity
Somehow West Ham are actually looking at quite a positive position in the relegation battle going into this one after the win at Fulham and results going their way elsewhere yesterday.
Currently holding one or two games in hand over every other side fighting against the drop, anything positive against Mikel Arteta’s men would give Moyes the upper hand in the final weeks.
He is sure to need it given there has been a complete absence of consistent results this campaign, leaving the Irons in a scrap this close to the end of the season despite an apparent assumption that the danger was never that great.
With the Gunners’ lead at the top of the league cut to just three following Manchester City’s win over Leicester on Saturday they will be pushing hard to stay clear on their quest for the title.
The Hammers will have to hope the pressure gets to them and the home side can take advantage because the last time a team in the Champions League places came to Stratford Newcastle went home with a 5-1 win that put Moyes on the brink of the sack.
A result here would inject some rare positivity by turning up for a big London derby and potentially playing spoiler in the title race, and with points at an absolute premium at the other end of the table that is more than enough incentive to perform.