Premier League Preview: The Gunners Need to Fire Now!

Arsenal vs West Ham United

Coach Unai Emery and his Arsenal have endured an ugly start in the Premier League. Now, they need to get themselves together and make sure they get their first points in what should be a winnable contest against West Ham.

The Gunners lost their first two opening games of the 2018/19 campaign, dropping them to 17th as one of only four teams without a point. Fortunately for Arsenal, they’ll be facing one of three clubs that have fared worse than them this campaign.

West Ham—just like Arsenal under Emery—are still adapting to the playing style of new manager Manuel Pellegrini, though they will also be hopeful of ending their own misery when they visit the Emirates Stadium this week.

Talking Points

Arsenal can be considered a little bit unlucky with the opening fixtures that saw them play two top-five clubs. They faced reigning English champions Manchester City in the opener and, unsurprisingly, lost 2-0 behind goals from Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva.

They visited Chelsea next and put up a gallant fight, battling back from two goals down before conceding an 81st-minute winner to the Blues’ Marcos Alonso.

While they would rue the fact that they failed to get even a single point from those games, Emery and Co. would have also learned a lot from those losses. And after showing flashes of brilliance in the Chelsea match, the Gunners are certainly well poised to find their way into the winners’ column.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been benefitting Unai Emery's coaching style as he is one of the players to watch for the Gunners — Henrikh Mkhitaryan scoring the Gunners’ opening goal during their Premier League game against Chelsea

Henrikh Mkhitaryan is the man to watch for Arsenal following his spectacular outing at Stamford Bridge last week. He scored one and assisted on the other for the Gunners and would have been “Man of the Match” had they won the game.

The Armenian midfielder was a constant threat in the match, and he will surely be a key factor to Arsenal’s hopes of winning especially now that both Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey seem to be struggling.

One immediate concern that Emery needs to address is their defence. While that may not be a huge problem against a Hammers team that has scored only one goal so far, Arsenal still can’t give up goals that easy and must show some defensive resiliency.

In their meetings with City and Chelsea, Arsenal conceded a combined three goals in the opening 20 minutes!

West Ham will undoubtedly take advantage of that glaring weakness, though their forwards must step up after failing to make their presence felt in the first two gameweeks. Only Marko Arnautovic was able to find the back of the net, with Javier Hernandez and Felipe Anderson still waiting to get on the scoresheet.

Another interesting storyline in the competition is Jack Wilshere’s return to his former club. After Emery made it clear that he has limited opportunities at Arsenal, the 26-year-old midfielder decided to leave his boyhood club to join West Ham.

Sure enough, Wilshere will look to be the main topic of Premier League 2018 news as he tries to show Arsenal what they are missing after his departure.

History

Arsenal have dominated their recent encounters with West Ham, winning four and drawing one in their last five. In fact, the Gunners won their past two meetings at the Emirates, scoring a total of five goals.

Alexandre Lacazette—who is yet to start as Emery prefers to have Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang up front—scored a brace in their 4-1 thrashing of the Hammers the last time out. Interestingly, it was also Arnautovic who scored West Ham’s lone goal in the fight.

The last time West Ham won against Arsenal was in 2015, and that was also their lone victory against the North London club since the start of the 2007/08 season. That translates to one win in 22 league and cup competitions for the Hammers versus the Gunners.

Betting Tip

	Arsenal vs West Ham United	Arsenal Asian Handicap -1.50 @ 2.00
	August 25, 22:00 (GMT+8)

The SBOBET football odds on Premier League 2018 betting have Arsenal as overwhelming favourites, thanks to their home-court advantage and superior firepower.

Both teams are severely lacking defensively, but the Gunners should benefit from that more with their frontline of Aubameyang, Lacazette, Alex Iwobi and Danny Welbeck.

There are high hopes for West Ham this campaign after Pellegrini was handed a £75 million transfer war chest, which he used to bring 10 new players to the club. However, it is yet to bear fruit and all signs point they are far from being the team that Pellegrini envisioned.

I believe both teams will score, but I like what I have seen so far from Arsenal.