Issa Diop, Craig Dawson, West Ham
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West Ham v Arsenal betting tips: Gunners to capitalise on Hammers’ defensive woes

| 30.04.2022

Preview, odds and West Ham v Arsenal betting tips

Sunday’s London derby takes place against the backdrop of West Ham having lost their first European semi-final in 46 years, while Arsenal are hoping to be competing at the top table from next season as they chase a top-four spot.

The Gunners occupy the final Champions League place heading into the weekend and are 1/2 favourites in the Premier League top-four odds, ahead of Tottenham who trail their north London rivals by two points with five games remaining.

Mikel Arteta’s men go into the match as 4/5 favourites, so let’s examine some of the main talking points in our West Ham v Arsenal betting tips.

West Ham v Arsenal form

Arsenal have been inconsistent lately, but their current form has them on an upward trajectory having followed an impressive 4-2 win at Chelsea with a 3-1 victory against Manchester United at the Emirates.

The Gunners had handed the initiative to Spurs with three successive defeats against Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton, so it came as quite a surprise they took maximum points against teams much higher in the table.

Arsenal have not drawn any of their last 12 games on the road, so a winner seems likely on Sunday and the evidence points towards the Gunners.

Hammers manager David Moyes is concentrating on winning the Europa League rather than finishing in the top four judging by his line-up against Chelsea in their last Premier League outing.

Then, they had just one fit senior centre-back, but even Craig Dawson will be missing for Sunday’s game after he was shown a straight red card for pulling back Romelu Lukaku in the closing stages.

Dawson was at the heart of a back five in that game, accompanied by Aaron Cresswell, Arthur Masuaku, Ben Johnson and Vladimir Coufal.

However, Kurt Zouma made a surprising return from an ankle injury in Thursday’s 2-1 Europa League semi-final first-leg defeat by Eintracht Frankfurt, starting alongside Dawson, so Moyes will be keeping his fingers crossed the French defender came through unscathed ahead of Sunday’s game. 

The Hammers struggled to impose themselves against the Germans who took the lead after 49 seconds and despite Michail Antonio’s equaliser 20 minutes later, Daichi Kamada sealed the win with a second-half tap-in.

Moyes said: “We’ve got a lot to do. We’ve got to show a lot more quality than we did tonight. We didn’t show enough quality, especially in the final third when we had moments to do so and a couple of times we turned off, obviously for the goals. So, a lot of those things will need to brighten up and be better.”

Vladimir Coufal, West Ham v Eintracht Frankfurt betting tips

With West Ham having won just one of their last five games and Arsenal starting to score freely, the visitors look a decent shout to win and over 2.5 match goals at 7/4 or 19/10 to be leading at half-time and full-time as they were against Manchester United.

Their last two matches involved both teams scoring in the first half, an option which can be backed at 15/4 in our West Ham v Arsenal betting tips, although Moyes may decide to rest some players ahead of next week’s second leg against Eintracht Frankfurt as he did at Stamford Bridge.

Arteta stressed how he wanted Arsenal to “start the game really fast” against United, “create issues, be really vertical and we managed to do that”.

A similar tactic seems plausible against an injury-hit Hammers defence which has conceded the first goal in four of their last five games and they are 6/5 to do so in the first half as they did against Tottenham and Burnley when they had two fit central defenders.

West Ham v Arsenal head to head

Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe were on target in a 2-0 win for the Gunners in mid-December when Coufal was sent off midway through the second half for a foul on Alexandre Lacazette, whose subsequent penalty was saved by Lukasz Fabianski.

Arsenal have won four of the last five meetings with the Hammers and are 21/10 to win to nil again or 8/5 for a victory and under 3.5 match goals which occurred in their last three victories against the east Londoners, who are 10/3 to pick up three points.

West Ham were leading at the break in this fixture in the last two seasons, but failed to win on both occasions, so we go 9/1 on that outcome, while Arsenal are the same price to win from behind.

West Ham v Arsenal team news

As things stand, Dawson, Angelo Ogbonna and Issa Diop are all unavailable, but Zouma’s return means Moyes potentially has at least one centre-back to face the Gunners.

Moyes went with his preferred back four in the 1-1 draw with Burnley, but flooded the defence at Stamford Bridge and may do so again in a bid to keep Arsenal at bay as they did so successfully for 90 minutes against Chelsea.

David Moyes, Premier League top-four odds

Arsenal duo Kieran Tierney and Thomas Partey are out with knee and thigh injuries respectively, so Nuno Tavares is likely to continue deputising at left-back and Mohamed Elneny is likely to start in front of the back four with Granit Xhaka.

Bukayo Saka had been doubtful for the win against United and it remains to be seen whether he suffered a reaction.

Goalscorer odds

Eddie Nketiah has started the last three games, breaking the deadlock at Chelsea, and he can be backed at 9/2 to repeat the trick or 9/5 to score in our West Ham v Arsenal betting tips, the same odds as Saka.

Someone has to be favourite to get the game’s first goal and that honour falls to Smith Rowe, who is 4/1 having scored the Gunners’ second goal at Stamford Bridge.

Tavares took just three minutes to open the scoring against Manchester United and is 50/1 and 20/1 in the two markets.

Andriy Yarmolenko, Michail Antonio, West Ham

Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio are 8/1 and 3/1 in the two goalscoring options, but both players were on the bench at the weekend, as was Declan Rice, so it may be worth checking the line-ups an hour before kick-off.

Andriy Yarmolenko and Said Benrahma both started the game and can be backed at 7/1 and 9/1 to get the ball rolling or 11/4 and 7/2 in the anytime market.

Match Info

Where: London Stadium

When: 16:30, Sunday 1st May

How to watch: Sky Sports

View the latest Premier League odds

All odds and markets correct as of date of publication

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Author

Warren Barner