Eboue and Toure returning to the starting line up, other than that I don’t see Arsene experimenting too much. There will probably be some rotation against Cardiff on Tuesday.

The battle for fourth place looks like it’s going to get harder and harder. Despite us being on our best run of form this season, the gap is growing, and our performances don’t look to be good enough to close it if we get given the opportunity. The title looks like going to Old Trafford again, but apart from that the Champions League places are still up for grabs really. If we beat West Ham on Saturday, after the weekends football the worst we’ll be is four points off fourth, and if the game between Chelsea and Liverpool ends in a victory for either side, we’ll be three points off of fourth again, and we still have to play those two teams again this season. It’s certainly not all over doom and gloom, but the way we played on Wednesday, you’d be forgiven for thinking so. Villa take on Wigan at home on Saturday, who are in good form and have been difficult for the top teams to beat this season. It’s been Villa’s ridiculous away form (won more away games than any other side this season) that has kept them in the top four rather than their home form, so maybe Arsene’s mate Steve Bruce could do us a favour and make it an enjoyable weekend for us. Obviously that is also reliant on us beating a West Ham side full of confidence, though.

West Ham have just about clawed themselves away from the pile of teams that swap positions every game due to the closeness of the relegation battle this year. It’s looking like the bottom ten teams are all in trouble. West Ham are currently eigth, level on points with Wigan in seventh. They’ve won seven of their last eight games in all competitions, they last lost on the 20th of December thanks to a Lucas Neill own goal against Villa. Carlton Cole is currently enjoying a great run of form, he’s scored six goals in their last six league matches, and they’re in good goalscoring form in general, scoring eighteen goals in their last seven games. In that same time we’ve scored eleven. Their away form is decent, they haven’t lost away from Upton Park since the 29th of October, when they lost at Old Trafford.

Before last season, when we did the double over them, West Ham had beaten us three times in a row. At home against the hammers in the Premier League, we’ve won nine, drawn one and lost three times. In all competitions home and away, it’s seventeen wins, six draws and five losses. We’ve only beaten them at home once since January 2003. The bubble blowers are one of only two teams to have beaten us at The Emirates Stadium, and were of course the last team to beat us at Highbury. Our last meeting with West Ham finished 2-0, Eduardo and Adebayor scored early goals to secure the victory and the rest of the game was played out like an exhibition match.

Team News

Wenger has said about the team selection “I will change things a little bit because we play on Tuesday but this game against West Ham is very important to us. I will make changes but I don’t want to disrupt the side too much.” The only probable changes to the team are maybe Eboue and Toure returning to the starting line up, other than that I don’t see Arsene experimenting too much. There will probably be some rotation against Cardiff on Tuesday. The main decision Arsene has to make is whether Toure or Gallas partners Djourou. He really needs to pick a centre back pairing and stick with it, the constant chopping and changing doesn’t really do anyone any good. Eduardo could be involved in the first team after playing for Croatia in mid-February, if he comes through that unscathed we could start to seem him in the squad from the FA Cup fifth round (if we get there) onward. Silvestre is out for another two to three weeks after a setback during his recovery from injury.

Subs: Fabianski, Toure, Song, Wilshere, Ramsey, Vela, Bendtner.

The Hammers don’t have any new injury concerns, Ashton and Gabbidon are out long term. New signing Savio Nsereko could be involved but will probably be on the bench.