Arsenal vs West Ham
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Kick off: 1:30PM
Arsenal face West Ham United at the Emirates in the Premier League after coach Arsene Wenger announced on Friday that he will be leaving the club having spent over two decades at the Gunners.
David Moyes and his Hammers charges have built a six-point gap from the dropzone but still require another win or two in order to cement themselves ahead of the chasing pack.
The Gunners head into the game following the news that veteran manager Wenger is to call time on his Arsenal tenure at the end of the season, bringing an end to his game-changing 22 years at the helm of the club.
The revelation has brought some of the highest praise from all corners of the footballing community, including former fierce rival Sir Alex Ferguson who has since openly admitted that Wenger is ‘one of the greatest Premier League coaches’.
Plaudits will likely go to his cultivation of the ‘Invincibles’ side of the 2003-04 campaign, but the Frenchman’s impact is undoubtedly far greater.
The club come into the clash with the Hammers having been beaten by Newcastle United last time out.
The news of Wenger’s looming departure will likely split some of the Arsenal fanbase, but going into his 527th Premier League game in charge the Frenchman will be hoping that all Gunners fans unite to help celebrate the announcement with a victory on home soil.
Meanwhile, the Hammers find themselves with five more league games to play and six points separating them from 18th-placed Southampton, over whom Moyes and his men also have a game in hand.
The table makes for more comfortable reading than it did a month or so ago, when the Hammers were staring relegation in the face amid troubling scenes of particular fan protests at the London Stadium.
Since that troubling home defeat to Burnley, West Ham have gone on an unbeaten run of three games, beating Southampton and drawing against Chelsea and Stoke City.
Moyes does not have the best of records against Arsenal either.
Arsenal possible XI: Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Chambers, Kolasinac, Elneny, Xhaka; Welbeck, Iwobi, Ramsey, Aubameyang.
West Ham United possible XI: Adrian, Rice, Ogbonna, Creswell, Zabaleta, Masuaku, Noble, Kouyate, Lanzini, Mario, Arnautovic.