Arsenal vs West Ham prediction: ENGLAND: Premier League betting tips on match 2025-02-21 15:00.
[p]Arsenalās Mikel Merino dedicated his match-winning brace against Leicester City (W 2-0) to his wife after forgetting to buy her a Valentineās Day present, and the goals were well received by the north Londoners after he was pressed into service as an emergency centre-forward. The Spaniardās cameo helped his side to a third straight Premier League victory, although theyāre still well behind leaders Liverpool.[/p]
[p]The injuries have been piling up for Arsenal, with Kai Havertzās season-ending hamstring issue forcing manager Mikel Arteta to get creative as he bids to extend the clubās 15-game unbeaten home league run (W11, D4). Two of those 15 saw Arsenal win against other capital clubs, and ahead of five consecutive London derbies at the Emirates in Englandās top flight, the hosts should be in a confident mood after scoring 11 times against the Hammers in the last two meetings.[/p]
[p]Coincidentally, four of the five Premier League games that Graham Potter has overseen since taking over at West Ham United have been London derbies, but the results havenāt been good so far for the former Chelsea head coach (W1, D1, L4 in all competitions). At least there is a comfortable buffer between the Irons and the relegation zone while Potter rebuilds and deals with injury problems which have particularly crippled his attack, as Niclas FĆ¼llkrug, Crysencio Summerville and Michail Antonio are all out for at least the next few weeks.Ā [/p]
[p]Edson Ćlvarez and James Ward-Prowse are available though, but some Hammers fans are a little unhappy with the progress being made since sacking Julen Lopetegui. While one win in their last seven away games (D2, L4) is uninspiring to say the least, they did triumph here last season (2-0) to break a sequence of eight successive H2H defeats on the road.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Ethan Nwaneri has three goal contributions across his last four Arsenal appearances (G2, A1), with four of his seven strikes this term arriving between the 30th and 50th minutes. West Hamās TomĆ”Å” SouÄek opened the scoring in this fixture last season, but might be more likely to be in the refereeās notebook on this occasion, having picked up bookings in three of his last five matches.[/p]
[p]Hot stat: The last six H2Hs (Arsenal: W3, D1, L2) have produced an average of 4.5 goals per game.[/p]
[p][i]Written by John Pennington[/i][/p]