West Ham vs Arsenal Betting Tips

London derbies take centre stage on Sunday with West Ham entertaining Arsenal at lunch time, and Spurs playing host to reigning champs Chelsea later in the afternoon. The Hammers might have turned a corner when beating Blackburn at the Boleyn Ground last weekend. The evergreen Teddy Sherringham rolled back the years with a spring heeled leap to head home the opening goal during his sides 2-1 victory, ending a five-game Premiership goal drought for the east Londoners in the process. However, the visiting Gunners will provide a far stiffer examination of West Ham's mettle than the Rovers provided. West Ham's under-fire boss Alan Pardew may do well to watch a re-run of Arsenal's match with Everton last Saturday, as the Toffees got the tactics spot-on against the Wenger's men, defending deep and crowding the midfield. But Arsenal's philosopher-like manager will no doubt pre-empt such methods in future and his charges will be wise to the fact that their rivals will want to turn a game of chequers into chess. In any case, with all due respect to West Ham, whether they have the defensive nous to apply this tactic in such an adept manner is open to debate. Personally I doubt that they could, as Everton are a more robust team whereas the Hammers' strength lies in their attacking flair. The stats augur well for Arsenal - they have won 47 of their 114 meetings with West Ham, losing on 31 occasions, and 36 fixtures resulting in draws. Since the inauguration of the Premiership, Arsenal have travelled to the Boleyn Ground (formerly known as Upton Park) ten times, winning four of the matches in question, five ending level, and the home side recording just a solitary win. Arsenal are without a number of players - Ljungberg, Eboue, Baptista, Lauren and Diaby - but welcome back Emmanuel Adebayor, who has recovered from a thigh problem. Even without these first-team stars, the visitors possess plenty of strength in depth and, as we have seen on many occasions, Arsenal are at their most dangerous when going into a match with pent up frustration. Held to a 1-1 draw by Everton last weekend, the title chasers played out a goalless draw against CSKA Moscow at the Emirates Stadium in their midweek Champions League tie. The frustration of Thierry Henry was evident in both games and it wouldn't be at all surprising if he were to unleash hell on West Ham's suspect defence. The Gunners have scored an average of 2.6 goals per game in their last five Premiership matches and, given that they will be desperate to reassert themselves following the two draws I alluded to, I can envisage them tearing into West Ham. At 14/1 with vcbet, Arsenal to win 3-0 rates an excellent value bet in my opinion. It's a bit of a flyer, but worth the risk. In the ten Premiership matches played between West Ham and Arsenal at the Boleyn Ground, the average goals per game ratio stands at 2.2. There's been a few stalemates, but generally speaking this fixture can be relied upon to serve up at least a few goals. Hopefully a few will be three and all will be scored by the Gunners. verdict - 0.50pts Arsenal 3-0 in the correct score market @ 14/1 (vcbet)