Saturday, February 22, 2025

Merino starts: Arsenal v West Ham team news

Arsenal are in Premier League action this afternoon, taking on West Ham at the Emirates.

Here are today’s official line-ups.

Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Partey, Rice, Odegaard, Nwaneri, Merino, Trossard.

Subs: Neto, White, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly, Tierney, Zinchenko, Jorginho, Sterling, Butler-Oyedeji

West Ham:

Subs:

Follow the game on the Arseblog live blog

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Tony

Merino hat trick incoming

ManilaGoonah

That would be nice.
But at this point I’ll take a scrappy 1-0 from an own goal off a West Ham player’s arse.

Andrew the Hinckley Gooner

My roomate’s mom-in-regulation makes usd eighty one each hour at the laptop . She has been fired for eight months but remaining month her paycheck turned into usd 17367 just operating
on the pc for a few hours….. Money63.solar

Jesus of Sao Paulo

You beat me to it! 😁 Seriously that’d be quite something but I’ll take a flukey 1-0 in the prevailing circumstances. Come on you tricky red Gunners!

Max

Welcome back Mr Blanco! ❤️

Collibosher

So MLS has been moved to “Gamechanger off the bench” role?

Fenko

He would play against Forest on Wednesday.
Trust the coach. He has his own idea for resting him.

Up4GrabsNow!

Surprised but not surprised. I thought Sterling might get another chance but Arteta has seen enough. If Merino doesn’t work out, what is Plan B?

In fairness, Trossard, Odegaard and Rice also need to start finding the net. Not enough end product from those three.

3-1 to us. Put more pressure on the Scousers.

Fenko

I would love any form of win but with a clean sheet.
It further breathes confidence into our backline and puts Raya on the run for another golden glove

Dinosauras

Merino as the focal point up top probably most designed to activate those guys more than bang in hat tricks (tho please do sir). Blogs saying our midfield can up the level is fair enough – but tough to achieve when youre constantly working the ball to a less reliable attacking line.

Tony

Plan B, I am thinking 4-4-2, Merino + Calafiori up front, Trossard + Nwaneri Wide, MLS LB. Amazing stuff.

Waititi

White to come off the bench early enough. I am curious of the dynamics on the right when he and Nwaneri are on that flank

Edzo

MLS has played a lot of minutes recently. Yes, he’s young but still vulnerable to injures from overload. His body is still getting used to playing so much football at this level. However, I trust him more defensively then I do califoria who often gets beaten when playing a high line. With a striker like Merino, though, we should easily score 5 today. We’ve never lost when Merino plays striker.

Cobwebs

If Merino is your best option at 9 then it makes sense to give him as long as possible to try to score. No point in starting the match by giving 70 mins to plan B.

Jeremy

1-0 scrappy win deflected goal off big Gabi’s arse will do me. All I care about is the result, anything else is a bonus.

vieiraera

Let’s make it a comfortable day win. No pointless yellows or red

Billy bob

Now you have said that, that is exactly what will happen 😮

myrtle

That aged like spoilt milk

BelgianGooner

Holy shit I did not see last week’s but this is horrendous

Rice, Odegaard, Trossard are the worst players on the field but god damn what was Calafiori waiting for ? Just attack the ball ffs

Shivam

Giving the ball away way too often and way too softly

BelgianGooner

Agreed

Let’s hope we win this one 2-1 with a Nwaneri Special and a clumsy goal at the end !!!

Clay

Odegaard is killing us to be honest. he is the creator but keeps playing passes that take us nowhere

vieiraera

Let’s face it – he’s been underwhelming most of the season.

SalvadorMari

I don’t understand how we look so tired.

We’ve had one game in the last 17 days. But you’d think we’ve been playing a game every other day.

Against Leicester it was the same. Sluggish. No intensity. Sideways passing.

I just don’t know why these players aren’t able to inject any pace into their performances at the moment.

BelgianGooner

We are lacking runs behind their lines so much

Daveod

Just once I wish arsenal would show up for a 3pm Saturday kick off, we are flat every single time!!!

vieiraera

It’s clear why MLS has been benching Calafiori. Prolly the worst 45 minutes at the emirates all season. Surely lightning can’t strike same place twice. Thankfully we have 45 minutes to turn it around.

morecoffeeman

Rice is clearly at fault for not picking up Bowen and has been poor all game

Mentalista

> Surely lightning can’t strike same place twice

Oh boy

Shivam

With Arsenal lightening keeps striking same place again and again and fucking again. Abysmal performance.

BelgianGooner

Cannot really complain about this red.

Think we can all agree that we cannot spend everything on a striker since we need another winger this summer.

Trossard is not good enough to be a starter in a team who’s aiming for silverware. Won’t be mad if we sell him this summer but will mean we will have to get two wingers.

Thierry Bergkamp (non negotiable)

Should be able to get Sterling for pennies and still buy a striker

BelgianGooner

Sterling’s gone.
He’s been playing for 15 years and his body cannot provide needed power anymore I am afraid

Ealing

No need

Unknown

Totally inert team performance, not helped by the red card and the fact that every touch on West Ham player is getting deemed a foul which then takes 90 seconds to take. The Arsenal team full of 6s and 8s cannot compete. Considering we have ST on a bench yet Sterling keeps getting brought on is even more damning. Surely young ST cannot be worse than current Sterling form.

Daveod

For probably the first time this season, nailed on red…….might not of been of raya hadn’t been 40 yards off his line

Unknown

I’m not sure I agree with the red card considering the distance and Kudus ended the game without a single card despite hand to the head of Raya and studs up challenge on Partey.

Unknown

Additionally, how did Arsenal end up with 10 on the field but Kudus ended a game without a card?!

Limpar2

Another disappointment. A load of rubbish.

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