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West Ham vs Arsenal preview: Injured players back for clash

Watch live on Sky Sports Premier League from 11.30am on Saturday

West Ham United v Arsenal
Image: West Ham United v Arsenal is live on Sky Sports from 11.30am on Saturday

Arsenal welcome back a host of injured players as they make the trip across London to play West Ham in the Premier League, live on Sky Sports Premier League from 11.30am on Saturday.

Mesut Ozil, Laurent Koscielny, Hector Bellerin, Nacho Monreal, Shkodran Mustafi and Konstantinos Mavropanos are all back in full training and under consideration for the weekend.

It will be welcome news for Unai Emery as they look for an away win, but the manager is aware of the tough task at hand.

"I think they [West Ham] are improving and they also have good individual players with quality, like Anderson, like Arnautovic - who are very good players," he said.

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"They are playing at home with their supporters and that's difficult for us. Each away match is a very big challenge for us to find consistency and progression with our way. Saturday is a new challenge. We are very [convinced] to play and to give big work in finding our victory."

West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini has hinted that Samir Nasri could be in line to make his Premier League debut against his former club after the 31-year-old played 58 minutes of West Ham's 2-0 FA Cup third round win against Birmingham.

He said: "I think it was very useful for him to play 60 minutes in the FA Cup. He has been working hard for around 40 days and he has demonstrated he is able to be involved against Arsenal, at least in the squad list."

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Take a look at some of the key stats ahead of this weekend's Premier League action

Team news

Nasri is set for his first Premier League appearance since August 2016, but West Ham's injury list remains long. Winston Reid (knee), Jack Wilshere, Ryan Fredericks (both ankle), Fabian Balbuena, Manuel Lanzini, Carlos Sanchez (all knee) and Andriy Yarmolenko (Achilles) are all missing.

Marko Arnautovic - whose brother claims he wants to leave West Ham - should play, despite his early substitution in the FA Cup and current transfer speculation.

Emery has options in defence with Koscienly, Bellerin, Mustafi and Monreal available after injuries.

However, Danny Welbeck and Rob Holding remain on the sidelines.

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Highlights from the 2-2 draw between West Ham and Brighton

Opta stats

  • West Ham have won one of their last 21 Premier League matches against Arsenal (D4 L16), a 2-0 win at the Emirates in August 2015.
  • Arsenal are unbeaten in 11 away matches at West Ham in all competitions (W8 D3) since losing 0-1 in the Premier League in November 2006.
  • West Ham have lost more Premier League games against Arsenal (29) than they have against any other side.
  • 15 of the last 17 goals scored in Premier League matches between West Ham and Arsenal have been scored in the second half.
  • West Ham have conceded at least once in their last eight home Premier League games, their longest run without a clean sheet in the top-flight since a run of 12 between April and December 2009.
  • Arsenal haven't failed to score in a Premier League game since the opening game of the season against Manchester City (0-2), netting in their last 20 matches in the competition.
  • Arsenal are looking to win three consecutive Premier League London derbies for the first time since March 2015, the third win of which came against West Ham.
  • Arsenal manager Unai Emery has never won away from home against Manuel Pellegrini in all competitions during his managerial career (P6 W0 D2 L4).
  • Andy Carroll has scored four times in his last two home Premier League appearances for West Ham against Arsenal, scoring a hat-trick in April 2016 at Upton Park and a consolation goal in a 1-5 defeat at London Stadium in December 2016.
  • Arsenal's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored in each of his last four Premier League London derby matches, netting six goals in total while also providing two assists.

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Highlights from Arsenal's win over Fulham in the Premier League

Merson's prediction

Arsenal struggle to stop goals going in and West Ham's best form of defence is attack. I don't know how Arsenal will cope with the likes of Carroll, Arnautovic and Anderson, but the Gunners are good going forward so it makes for an entertaining game.

PAUL PREDICTS: 2-2 (with Sky Bet)

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