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Arsenal vs West Ham Preview - It's Hammer Time!

Early days but this is a big one. After 2 wins and 3 draws, we went into the Chelski game knowing that we had a real chance of throwing down the gauntlet with a win. Obviously we all know what happened and now our "good start" seems a little shaky. Lose or draw today and we would be far away from the top very quickly again.

I fully expect Mertesacker to be restored to the lineup if he's fit. As I touched on yesterday, Kos and Verm are too similar to play with each other. Last year, when Per got hurt against Sunderland, Kos and Verm were paired against Milan away for the first time in a while and we lost 4-0. Now our team as a whole, played badly then but that pairing did not work. It eventually took them a run of 5-6 games before they actually were comfortable with each other. In the end, Kos took up the more passive role of organizing and covering at the back while Verm was more gung-ho with his approach.

I love the Verminator. He's all blood and guts. You know he'll fight to the death for us but he makes rash decisions sometimes. His goals and all around energetic play mean that we forgive him for his fallacies. In the last two games, he hasn't been good. Sure everyone has a blip once in a while but as Captain, he'll know that the first half against Olympiakos was not up to par. He needs to be more controlled with his play.

While Mertesacker still divides opinion, I firmly believe he has something our team hasn't had since Tony Adams retired. Adams wasn't the quickest player but he had that knack of organizing players around him to make sure that his deficiencies were never exposed. Per is the same way. The first two yards are in his head. He reads the game so well and knows when to intercept the ball and snuff out danger. You don't play for Germany 80 odd times and be ordinary. We'll need his calm and experience against the Hammers.

The team looked a little jaded against Chelski and Olympiakos. We'll need to be much sharper today to take all three points. Coquelin should continue in the side and as I said yesterday, Giroud needs to play. Ox was poor against the Greeks and Gervinho should switch to the right hand side with Giroud coming in for Alex. That's what I hope. I wouldn't be surprised if the boss went with Ramsey on the right like he did against Citeh.

We should see Yossi again playing for West Ham. Love the guy. Scored a few important goals for us last year. Surprised he was picked up by a bigger team. A true professional. He might not start against us but we'll have to box him out if he does come on. Players like Nolan, Diame and Carroll will make this game a bruising encounter. We dominated Stoke earlier without putting the ball in the back of the net. I think the Hammers are a little better with the ball so we'll have to be focused and switched on all game. We have to be clinical today and take the chances when they come. Mannone will need to be at his best too. He was well protected in the first few games. In the last two, he's been a little dodgy with his decision making.

It's going to be tight but I reckon we should win this game today. It's going to be a battle all the way. I'll go for the old 1 nil to the Arsenal.