It’s West Ham today and I have to say, I am intrigued as to who Arsène picks in the first XI come 3pm. 

It’s an interesting dilemma that he faces; on the one hand he’ll have confidence-high players who will be on top of the world after breaking the hoo-doo that enveloped the team when visiting Manchester in seasons past, but he’ll also be Mindful of that ill-fated ‘red zone’ that often preys on the most brittle of hamstrings and calfs. 

My hope is that he opts to keep the team fresh above anything else. West Ham have been away to Dubai for a couple of weeks and will have completely recharged their aching limbs, so I’m expecting them to come at us all guns – or hammers – blazing from quite early in the game.

The advantage we have is the number of injuries and unavailable players they seem to have amassed. No Reid or Tompkins at the back and with Jenkinson unavailable due to the terms of his loan, Allardyce will have some major reshuffling to do with his back five. Hopefully that plays into our hands, but as annoying as he is, Fat Sam can certainly set his team up tactically well enough to make life frustrating for us.

That’s why the forward line will be so important today, but also the supportng cast that sit behind them, I’m specifically thinking about the full backs. I don’t expect we’ll see a swashbuckling 3-5-2 or 4-2-4 from West Ham, so having players with that little bit more going forward must take priority over anything else I think, which is why I hope we see Gibbs and Bellerin start. Both are better going forward than Nacho and Calum and have extra pace too, so I’d give them a run out, despite the fact it would be harsh on Monreal.

It’s also because of the way that West Ham will play, that I think we’ll also not see Theo, because his primary assets of pace and playing off the shoulder of the last man will be left rather redundant against a team who will sit deep and look to take advantage of set plays. 

So for me it’s got to be a front three of Alexis, Giroud and Welbeck. There’s pace enough the either side of Giroud and Welbeck is a slightly better technical player than Walcott I think. 

Sitting behind them id love to fit in Rosicky somewhere, but how can you drop Mesut or Santi in the form they are in? You can’t and I don’t think Wenger will. A unless Tomas changes his entire game overnight and wakes up a ball winning defensive-minded player, it’ll be Coquelin behind the Spaniard and German, with Per and Kos sitting behind him.

I think we win this game if we approach it in the right way and aren’t lethargic with our play. West Ham aren’t in the best of form and we know all too well what problems occur when a squad is decimated with injuries. But the only niggling factor that could impact the game will be who is not quite 100% in terms of fitness, because West Ham will be and we have to be ready for it.

We need to maintain momentum to keep up the feelgood factor at the moment. The weather is getting warmer, we have an FA Cup semi final to look forward to and are in a good position in the league, but we need to keep it up.

Come on Arsenal, let’s knock back another three points.