The team finally returns home after two tough away games, and they really ended that mini-trip in style with the excellent and unexpected 4-1 win at Everton on Saturday after the disappointing 0-0 game at Portsmouth. I say disappointing because we ended our ’scoring in every game this season’ streak, not for the point we came back with. A point away at Portsmouth is not as bad as some fans think, and many fans actually went to panic mode all of a sudden!

Back to Tuesday’s game.

West Ham are the only other team to EVER win at the Emirates in all competitions!

They also come to this game in a good mood after doing us a favor and making a really good come back to defeat Manchester United 2-1. I watched most of that game, and they did very well, didn’t roll over and actually tried to create something from the game. They had more possession, more shots on goal, more shots on target, and twice as many corners as United. Both goals came from set pieces - the first a corner from which the less ugly Ferdinand brother scored from. The second from a free kick which former gunner Upson scored from. Both goals were headers too, which is an important stat that I’ll come back to later.

West Ham have the best defensive record in the league outside the top 4, with only 17 goals scored against. Fortunately for us, there are also missing many players. Dyer, Bellamy, Bowyer, Boa Morta, Zamora, Gabbidon, Etherington, Faubert, Collins, and Davenport make a loong injury list, which significantly limits their attacking strength. Add to that the fact that both Solano and Parker were substituted because of injuries in the ManU game, and they really do look limited.

Back to the set pieces issue mentioned above - Both Ferdinand and Upson are tall defenders who are good headers of the ball and will be a threat at set pieces. But wait, there’s more … Dean Ashton and Carlton Cole are both taller than the defenders and are also a dangerous aerial threat. So imagine this, in any corner or free kick situation, they will have Ashton (6′2″), Cole (6′3″), Upson (6′1″), and Ferdinand (6′0″) in the box against Gallas (5′11″) and Toure (6′0″). We should try our best not to concede silly fouls near the box. Solano and Noble are two of the better crossers of the ball in the league. I worry about crosses to either side of the goal, hopefully they wont capitalize on the height advantage against Sagna and Clichy.

From our side, Van Persie remains injured as well as Walcott. I can’t find any news of other injuries. Correct me if Im wrong, but I think Flamini’s 5th yellow and Bendtner’s red rules them out of the Burnley game, so they should be fine. Eduardo is making a case for more starts. I honestly expect him to turn things around the second half of the season. My guess is that we will go back to 4-4-2 since we are at home playing against a mid-table team.

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In the last 10 years, we’ve played West Ham at home 8 times (they were relegated for 2 seasons). We won 6 and lost 2 . We scored 17 goals and had 6 against. That’s an average of about 2.1 goals a game against West Ham at home, and 0.75 conceded.

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My guess for our formation is -

**EDIT** Since I wrote this preview a day early, there was little news on team selection. It turns out that Sagna and Gilberto are out, while Eboue, Hoyte and Walcott are back in. My guess is that Eboue will start after his rest, either in last season’s role at right back or replacing Hleb. Rosicky did well last game and scored and I think Wenger will give him a chance. Hoyte would slot in at right back if Eboue replaces a winger.

I hope Fabregas and Hleb will get their groove back, and I really hope we start 2008 like we ended 2007! Also, lets give Ljungberg the welcome he deserves ….

Happy New Year in advance!

I was going to post about our strikers before the game, but decided to wait till after the game just in case. The game only proved what I had worked out earlier.

Before the match, and for the past week or two, everyone has been talking about 2 issues -

1. 4-5-1 vs. 4-4-2
2. Why Wenger doesn’t start Bendtner ahead of Adebayor following his performance in recent games.

I will not discuss the first issue now. Instead I will discuss the latter issue using statistics.

Wenger today played with Bendtner and Eduardo up front giving Adebayor a rest. Unfortunately Bendtner had a total nightmare of a game which ended disgracefully or rather stupidly from his side with a rash tackle. These things happen, this is football, and he still needs some more experience. We’ve seen these kind of silly mistimed tackled from lack of experience happen before with Denilson this season and Fabregas a couple of years ago. Hopefully its a learning experience for Nicklas.

On the other hand, Eduardo proved his reputation as a cool finisher with a killer instinct. Following his excellent finishes as Blackburn, he had two more today at Everton. The guy makes finishing look too easy. His record at Zagreb and for Croatia is nothing less than amazing. People have been on his back here at Arsenal so far this season, but in fact he has been excellent too.

Now the numbers part, which striker is the best of the pack this season??

I took the number of minutes each player played, and then got averages for goals, assists, and shots on target. I also got the percentage of shots that are on target from total shots. It will all make sense in a minute I hope -

These statistics are for all competitions this season.

Eduardo is a true striker. In his limited opportunities, he really made the most out of them, leading the way in terms of goals per 90 minutes played. He is also the most accurate, with more than 64% of his shots being on target!

With his excellent finishing, and these impressive statistics, I’d like to hear from people who still don’t rate him.

We are blessed this season with an excellent forward line full of talent, but in recent years we have been criticized for our lack of an out and out striker. Let’s hope Eduardo will fill that slot for us as well as he did previously in his career!

This is a football blog that will be dedicated mostly to Arsenal and all fans who appreciate “the Arsenal Way” of football.

I picked the website’s title also as a tribute to Arsene Wenger, keeping his initials in the website’s name. He is the man behind the Arsenal Way that we enjoy and others envy.

Personally, I am a big fan of statistics, and I enjoy the tactical side of the game. Hopefully both these aspects will be prominent in the posts to come.

Any suggestions or comments from people with established football blogs or from any readers are hugely welcome.