Following our impressive Champions League success in Lisbon, we will be looking to build further momentum as we travel to West Ham United on Saturday evening (5.30pm UK) to keep the pressure on the league leaders.

With Liverpool hosting Manchester City the next day, there is a chance of moving up to second place this weekend or closing in on the Reds at the top of the table, but only if we can continue our excellent record at the Hammers, where we have just lost one our last 16 away games in the Premier League.

But the east Londoners will be buoyed by their own away success this week as they left Newcastle United with a 2-0 win, easing some of the pressure on Julen Lopetegui, who watches from the stands as he serves a sideline ban subsides.

Living comfort for the Hammers

The fact that West Ham have yet to record consecutive wins, draws or defeats in the Premier League this season highlights how inconsistent they have been to a start. They start this week in 14th place but looked to be aiming for consecutive league wins for the first time since March after their win at St James’ Park.

West Ham have lost each of their first three home games this season and are unbeaten in three games at the London Stadium, having beaten Manchester United and Ipswich Town and being held to a goalless draw by Everton in their last home game.

These seven points are as many as they have earned in their previous nine home games as they aim to change their fortunes on their own turf, with their sole focus being the league given there is no European football this season and Their interest in the Carabao Cup ended in the third round against Liverpool.

What the managers say

Arteta: “I know him (Lopetegui), we are friends, I have great admiration for what he did in this game. He comes from the same area as me in the north of Spain. It’s a team that’s on a high after the season.” The big away win against Newcastle was always a really tough opponent, we know that.

“(They have) different ways of creating big problems. They are a really physical team, really good at direct play and attacking second balls where they have to dominate the game through the ball. Or if they have the space, they are really dangerous.” The top players can cause problems at any moment through set pieces and individual quality. They are really well trained.

Lopetegui: “They definitely put in a very good performance (against Sporting on Tuesday). But that’s normal – they have a lot of opportunities to win and they’re a great team with great individual players.”

“I prefer not to talk about individuals because there are so many of them that you could call two teams. I would rather talk about what we can control, which is our players, our work and our strengths.”

Team news

Gabriel was late for the win in Portugal in midweek and we will assess his availability at the latest.

Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu remain our only long-term injured players as they attempt to recover from their knee injuries.

Mohammed Kudus is out for the fifth of his five games after his red card against Tottenham in October, while German striker Niclas Fullkrug has been out since September with an Achilles tendon injury.

Centre-back Jean-Clair Todibo was sent off for a punch in the second half against Newcastle on Monday and it remains to be seen whether he will feature, but one man who will not be there is Lopetegui, who will have to serve a sideline suspension after he had already received three yellow cards this season.

Conversation tactics

Adrian Clarke: West Ham United are aiming to keep a third consecutive clean sheet, so they will go into this clash feeling better from a defensive perspective. The way they stayed organized and disciplined to knock out Newcastle United at St James’ Park was impressive, even if it didn’t really suit their season in general.

Only three teams have a higher xG against than Julen Lopetegui’s side, who struggled to stop the division’s stronger teams in 2024/25. Having conceded four against Spurs and three against Manchester City, Chelsea and Nottingham Forest, we should be confident of creating plenty of chances.

What I liked most about their 2-0 win at Newcastle was their proactive attitude out of possession. West Ham resisted the temptation to sit in a low block and instead operated more decisively in the middle third.

If Lopetegui’s midfield unit of Tomas Soucek, Carlos Soler and Lucas Pacqueta work as hard as they have in this competition, they could also occasionally disrupt our flow of play. We would hope to outplay them at our skill level, but this trio was strong, hardworking and aggressive.

Winger Jarrod Bowen is the obvious dangerous man. He may have only scored three goals this season, but his pace, dribbling skills and imagination in the final third keep all of West Ham’s opponents on their toes.

Bowen’s work rate appears to have gone up a notch. He has won back more possession than any other Hammers man (62), no small feat considering his main job is to create. On this front, he has had the most ball contacts in the opposition penalty area (58), created the most chances (28) and taken the most shots on goal (12). His duel with Riccardo Calafiori should be an exciting fight.

If West Ham build on the standards they set in their last game, this could be a very hard-fought London derby, but should they fall back to the rather flat level of performance we have seen in many of their games, Arsenal should be confident of winning all three points.

I expect Lopetegui to focus his game plan on staying solid and hurting us in transitions. Provided we play with the same incredible sharpness as we did against Sporting and Forest, they could be close enough to force too many turnovers.

Facts and statistics

West Ham have lost more Premier League games (36) and at home (15) to us overall than to any other opponent in the competition.

We have only beaten Everton (38) and scored more goals in the Premier League (124) than we have against West Ham.

Since the start of the 2022/23 season, we have only lost two of their 26 London derby games in the Premier League (W18 D6).

We are unbeaten in our last 13 Premier League games, having played away in Europe in midweek (W10 D3), scoring 31 goals and conceding just six.

Bukayo Saka has been involved in 21 goals in his last 25 London Derby games in the Premier League (9 goals, 12 assists), including five in his last six games against West Ham.

Only Mohamed Salah (16) has been involved in more goals in the Premier League this season than Saka (12 – 4 goals, 8 assists). In fact, Saka has both scored goals and provided assists
three different games this season, with only Salah playing more games (4).

As a West Ham player, Jarrod Bowen has scored in four of his five home games against us in all competitions.

Match officials

After overseeing our game against Liverpool last month, Anthony Taylor is back at the helm of a Gunners game. We’ve won 30 of the 51 games he’s officiated and only lost two of the last 16. Like us, the Hammers are unbeaten in their last four games, which the Cheshire referee received.

Taylor has shown 43 yellow cards in his 11 Premier League games this season, including a division record 14 in a game between Bournemouth and Chelsea. No referee has handed out more penalties in these games than these three.

Referee: Anthony Taylor
Assistants: Gary Beswick, Adam Nunn
Fourth official: Bobby Madley
VAR: Michael Salisbury
Assistant VAR: Mark Scholes

Previous trips to London Stadium

Since West Ham moved to the former Olympic Stadium in 2016, we have won four of our nine visits there and drawn three, and on our last visit to the Hammers’ home ground we beat them 6-0, our best ever away win in the league .

Goals from William Saliba, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel and Leandro Trossard put us 4-0 up at half-time before Saka scored a second and Declan Rice scored from distance to round off a memorable afternoon. The previous season, Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard gave us a 2-0 lead within 10 minutes, but a penalty from Said Benrahma and a goal from Bowen helped the hosts win a point.

We have only lost one of our last 16 away league games against West Ham, with our last five visits alternating between a win and a draw. However, we suffered a 3-1 defeat in the League Cup last season.

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Live reporting

Just before kick-off, tune in to Arsenal.com and the official app to hear live commentary of the game, provided by our usual team of Dan Roebuck and Adrian Clarke.

You can also find out which channels are broadcasting the event livewherever you are in the world.

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