Credit: Sky Sports via YouTube

Zak Anderton

Fri 21 February 2025 11:10, UK

Paul Merson believes West Ham United have enough talent among their ranks to “frustrate” Arsenal in their upcoming Premier League clash on Saturday.

The Hammers have had a rather torrid time since the start of the 2024/25 campaign and a lot more should have come from Graham Potter’s men from the point when he took over.

At the moment, they’re 16th in the top-flight table and are only 10 points away from the Premier League relegation zone.

Saturday’s game against Arsenal will no doubt be one of their toughest fixtures of the season, especially since the Gunners are eight points adrift of the top spot themselves with a game in hand.

Paul Merson believes West Ham have the “firepower” to pick Arsenal off

While only Evan Ferguson was added to the Hammers’ ranks in the winter transfer window, the Irishman’s addition could end up being a turning point in West Ham’s season.

Since the start of the term, the East London outfit have been without a regular focal point due to the sheer amount of time players such as Niclas Fullkrug and Michail Antonio have spent on the sidelines.

The German was brought in to try and rectify the Hammers’ striker woes but instead, he’s just given them another ageing player with a bumper weekly wage for them to fork out.

Despite this, Merson, writing in his weekly predictions for Sportskeeda, (20 February), gave his prediction for the clash, stating that the Hammers have the ability to hurt Arsenal – who Merson says are facing a “must-win” encounter – up top.

“I thought Arsenal struggled vs Leicester until Mikel Merino scored two very good late goals,” he wrote.

“West Ham were decent against Chelsea, I liked how they played even though they lost. West Ham will come out and frustrate Arsenal in this game, plus the Hammers have the firepower in the form of players who can pick you off.

“They are also a better team in games they are forced to rely on counter-attack. Arsenal have a tricky run of fixtures after this game.

“This is a must-win clash and they must look at one game at a time rather than getting too ahead of themselves, the title is still well out of their hands though.”

Graham Potter needs a win at the London Stadium

Even though Potter was handed Julen Lopetegui’s failure to try and at least salvage something out of the 2024/25 season, fans likely believe their team should have been doing better over the last few weeks.

While it’ll obviously take some time for Potter’s tactics to sink in, the fact the Englishman has been at the helm since 9 January means that alarm bells might start to ring soon if progress isn’t made.

Because, at the moment, West Ham have made little-to-no progress in the league and could do with a couple of nerve-easing wins to ensure they don’t get dragged into a battle against the drop.

Ferguson could be the Hammers’ saviour this season but if he doesn’t manage to figure out how to get himself firing, West Ham’s striker curse will have consumed yet another number nine.