Morning all..

Happy Boxing Day. Not sure if that’s what’s meant to be said but it’s nice so I have anyway!

I know there is a reason for this day being called Boxing Day but for me this morning it feels like I’ve been a few rounds with Nicola Adams and she caught me around the head on more than one occasion!! Ouch! Yes it’s all my own fault I know…..

Transfer rumours continue, we are supposed to have made a €6 million bid forΒ Paul-Georges Ntep and in other news, Jackson Martinez has hinted that he may make a move to us in January…

Anyway, enough of that, we have a game today and Arsene Wenger has had this to say:

It’s a local derby on Boxing Day and we know that West Ham have made surprising results.

They have won twice at Tottenham this season now and can be a tough opponent.

I think everybody takes West Ham seriously and expects great resistance from them. Last year we did well against them – we have to be inspired by that, go there and play our game again. But they have good players, always a good crowd and it’s a derby so they are always up for it.

Question is Arsene, are we??

Seriously, we really need to start playing better, a lot better if we are to start winning again.

Stories in the press suggest that we could see changes made for today’s match. Podolski is one of them, Koscielny may be back after injury and Mesut Ozil is set to be rested.

Podolski has not played at all since the second game of the season and he lacks a bit competitiveness. Of course I can only find it if I play him but he’s been in training for just two weeks now. I have to make that decision when I use him or not.

But we need to rotate a little bit because we play so many games now and we put in a lot of effort against Chelsea.

I don’t want to sound too harsh but I didn’t see an awful lot of effort put in against Chelsea, especially going forward and just two shots on goal suggests we can do an awful lot better.

Dean didn’t help our cause, we all know that and today it’s Phil Dowd so don’t expect too many favours again. I suspect he will have had a pre-match get together with Big Sam debating over who has lost more weight over the last year!!

The big names failed to turn up on Monday, well maybe they will feel like turning up today against the Hammers. If they can’t then who the heck do they fancy playing against?

Come on Arsenal, we are better than this, we can play better and we can win again, starting today…

Podolski will be desperate to play having been out so long, play him. Bendtner can’t do any worse in front of goal than Giroud is doing at the moment, why not start him? (Yes, that smacks of desperation) and Gnabry, well what has he ever done wrong?

Use him I say, he’d give us directness, width and speed. Nor is he afraid to get the ball and take on defenders, unlike someone else I could mention who plays on the right!

I know too many changes aren’t good for maintaining stability but things are’t going quite so well right now, so maybe a few fresh legs might just make a difference.

Ring the changes, spice it up a bit Arsene andΒ lets go get three points on the board!!

COYRRG’s!!