London.

Sunday, 25 October 09, 08:12 AM · Comments(4)

We travel to the east end of London today for a 4.15 kick off against West Ham. It's the second of eight London derbies this season with our 1-0 victory at Craven Cottage against Fulham a few weeks ago being the first. That was a very important and hard fought victory as we weren't at our best and today we will need to fight just as hard against a West Ham team who are 19th in the table. They have always played attractive football and under Zola that has not changed but their financial difficulties are making things harder for them at the moment. A win against a top team like Arsenal today would be the tonic they need to help them climb out of the relegation zone and get their season on track so we will have to make sure that we start off at the right pace and punish them for every sigle mistake they make.

The manager doesn't have too many options when it comes to team selection as we still have a host of injuried players out. I would imagine that we will see the same team starting as we did against AZ on Tuesday night although as I have said 1,000 times before I would love to see Vela get a start for a change. Eduardo is the only player available again after injury but I would imagine that he will be on the bench as he will be reintroduced slowly for obvious reasons. I predict a 2-0 win with the goals coming from RVP & The Verminator but maybe that's because they're both in my fantasy team and I need a few more points this week to stay ahead of the posse. We are better than West Ham and a win is a must as we bid to overtake The Spuds in the league table for the first time this season following their home defeat against Stoke yesterday. Depending on the result of the Liverpool and Manure game beforehand we could find ourselves in the position where no other team in the league has dropped less points than us after this game which will shorten our odds to win the league no doubt.

Usually I would go to the supporters club in The Strand in Bray to watch the game but as it's a long weekend I'll be watching the 2 games in my local with some family and some Liverpool & Manure supporting friends. I'll miss the half time preview of The Gooner Review which the club are showing but unfortunately it can't be helped and I'll have to make sure I go out to watch the midweek Carling Cup game against Liverpool in the club. There's a bit of transfer speculation about today but I'll deal with it tomorrow as time is of the essence and roast beef doesn't cook itself. That's it for today.

Here's a clip of what Vela can do given the chance.

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And to finish here's today's title track from The Smiths. We have 8 London derbies this season and if we can win at least 6 of them I think we will win the league.

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See You Tomorrow.

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