Saturday afternoon’s game at the Emirates Stadium sees third place Arsenal host a West Ham United side who are looking to end a seven game winless run.

Arsene Wenger’s side’s victory at Queens Park Rangers last time out in the league was their seventh from their last eight Premier League games, and that run has seen them move to within nine points on league leaders Chelsea.

With the Blues not playing until Sunday, the Gunners will be keen to close that gap even further as they head into the business end of the season keen to continue challenging on three fronts.
They are currently favourites to retain the FA Cup after knocking out Manchester United last Monday, while their Champions League last sixteen tie with Monaco is far from over despite them losing the first leg 3-1 towards the end of last month.

As for this weekend’s match, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will miss out after being ruled out for four weeks with a hamstring injury while Mikel Arteta, Jack Wilshere, Mathieu Debuchy and Gabriel Paulista are also side-lined though Mathieu Flamini may feature.

Olivier Giroud is favourite to open the scoring at 4.75 (15/4) with Bet 365, with Alexis Sanchez a 5.0 (4/1) shot with the same firm.

The home win is 1.44 (4/9) with Sporting Bet, with the visitors as highly priced as the 9.5 (17/2) on offer from Bet Victor. The draw is a 5.5 (9/2) chance with 888 Sport.

Sam Allardyce’s side’s recent run of form has seriously dented their chances of qualifying for Europe next season, though three points here could see them rise to as high as eighth place.
Carl Jenkinson is ineligible to face his parent club and Alex Song and Enner Valencia are both injury doubts.

Winston Reid and James Tomkins are definitely out though Morgan Amalfitano could return after serving a three-game ban.

Top scorer Diafra Sakho is 12.0 (11/1) to get the first goal of the game with Betfair, with Stewart Downing priced at 23.0 (22/1) with a number of firms.

The Gunners have won the last nine meetings between the sides, with the last five of those victories coming with both teams scoring in the game so you may be tempted to back that outcome here at 3.35 (40/17).