Morning! Hoep you are enjoying the gouch between Christmas and New Year. Boredom is finally broken as we get to go down The Arsenal tonight, Although I am unimpressed by the 8:15 kick off – another decision made for the TV audience.

Arsenal’s Twitter account has rattled the Cockney rejects with a simple picture of Declan Rice:

Check out the replies on the Tweet from the club. Those Essex Boys have had a proper heads gone over it. Maybe they are finally learning that, despite their posturing, we were the winners with the Rice deal.

We clearly did not over pay and have ended up getting a player that has improved so much this season that he is now the best in the world.

Saying that, West Ham have been decent this season, and I do not really understand the clamour amongst their fanbase to get rid of David Moyes.

Moyes saved west Ham from relegation in his first season back with the club. They had gained just 1 point from 18 before he was appointed.

In his second season, Moyes took West Ham to 6th in the league – their highest finish since 1998/99. This would see West Ham qualify for the Europa League.

2021/22 would see Moyes take West Ham to the Europa League and finish 7th, ensuring back to back European qualification. A hyear later he would win them the Europa Conference League – their first trophy in over 40-years!

For the first time in their history, they are playing in European competition 3 seasons in a row, comfortably topped their Europa League group and sit 7th in the league (above the likes of Newcastle, Brighton and Chelsea).

Yes, they were thrashed at Anfield in the League Cup, but Moyes had to shuffle his squad after illness went through the camp.

Moyes is clearly a good manager, but West Ham fans seem to think they are bigger than him. Those same West Ham fans thought they were better than James Ward Prowse when he joined. They act like they are Arsenal or Liverpool, when they are not even a Tottenham or Newcastle.

History shows they are a mid-lower league team who get relegated as often as they have finished top 6 since the Premier League came into existence. And for those saying “there was football before the Premier League”, you’re right, and West Ham were not even a “founder” member of the Premier League. They did not join until the 1993/94 season.

Their fans need to be careful what they wish for – both in owners and managers. They are no different in size (considering fan base, trophies and history) to a Leeds United, and look how their fans have suffered over the years due to being so poorly run.

Getting in a Steve Cooper or a Graham Potter will not suddenly make them a top 6 team. In fact they will probably take West Ham backwards as they look to implement their style of football on the club.

Considering the financial wealth of the traditional big 6, and the new wealth of Newcastle, the likes of West Ham, Aston Villa, Brighton and others are basically playing for 8th. Anything above that position should be considered a huge success!

Be careful what you wish for Hammers fans…sack Moyes and you could be back to those lower-mid table finishes and relegation battles with no Europe!

Ahead of the game, Mikel Arteta has given West Ham the credit they are due, saying: “They are a really good side. They’re really well coached and when you look at the success that they had last year and how they’ve played this season, they’ve shown a lot of consistency.

“They’ve beaten Spurs and Manchester United – that tells you everything about the difficulty of the game tomorrow. We’ll have to be really, really good.”

Nothing has changed injury-wise, with Thomas Partey, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Jurrien Timber and Fabio Vieira still out. The first 2 are expected back in January, just as the African Nations and Asia Cup are starting! Kai Havertz also misses the game due to suspension.

I would not be surprised if it is (almost) the same XI as what faced Liverpool last Saturday (the players have had an 8 days break) – the only change being Leandro Trossard coming in for the suspended Rice.

I do wonder whether Arteta might rotate a little more with Fulham on Sunday. But then again, playing Saturday,Thursday, Sunday is not an unusual workload for a side like ours that are used to playing twice a week.

West Ham will not be easy, and we will have to be careful of those counter attacks. Mohammed Kudus is a fabulous player and could cause Olexsandr Zinchenko real problems on our left hand side (and with Tomi and Timber out, we do not have thise more defensive options).

UTA!

Keenos

In public, the message is clear from The Arsenal: No one leaves.

But a bit like the summer, the feeling is that if a bid comes in for one of our fringe players, and they decide to seek first team football elsewhere, then the door is open. And that includes Hale End trio Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson.

Mikel Arteta has shown during his time at Arsenal that if a fringe player wants to depart for first team football elsewhere, then he will not stand in their way.

It was a lesson learned with Ainsley Maitland-Niles when Arteta blocked him departing. We ended up with a moody player who did not want to be here, and whose training dropped off so much he became unpickable. We ended up losing around £25m in transfer fee due to the situation.

Last summer, Matt Turner had the opportunity to become a Premier League first choice keeper with Nottingham Forest. He took the chance and Arsenal replaced him with David Raya.

Whilst we are in the title race, and it would be crazy to let anyone go, it is also wrong to keep hold of players who play so little, and sacrifice the transfer fee.

Nketiah, Smith Rowe and Nelson could generate in excess of £100m in transfer fees combined. and you would probably only need to buy one player to replace them. A striker.

Eddie is the only man of the 3 that has played any significant minutes in the Premier League this season – 839 at the time of writing.

There has been plenty of talk already about us targeting a new striker in January (Ivan Toney, Dominic Solanke), so if Eddie left, you have to assume we would have a replacement lined up.

I do not think people have realised how little Smith Rowe and Nelson have played in the last 18 minths. The pair have played a combined 170 minutes this year. Last year it was 368 minutes across the entire season.

Whilst both are favourites amongst the fans, I think it is fairly clear that they could leave and it would not weaken our squad. There place – as very fringe wingers – would be taken by Gabriel Jesus if a new striker joined.

A better number 2 (or new number 1), would give the option of playing Jesus on either the left or right if 2 of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard were out injured.

Say it was Toney we signed to replace Eddie, we could have a front 3 of: Jesus Toney Trossard. More than enough to beat most teams. And all 3 of those are better than Smith Rowe and Nelson.

There had been a feeling for time that Smith Rowe could play more centrally, but even there he has a battle for games.

Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard are now clearly our “number 8s”. They are backed up by Fabio Vieira (who is also an option on the wings). Vieira is expected to return to the first team squad in January.

A new striker would also give us the option to play Jesus deeper, similar to the role Julian Alvarez undertakes for Manchester City. There is also the option of playing Declan Rice further forward (with either Thomas Partey or Jorginho taking up the deepest midfield role). If Partey leaves, I would expect us to recruit someone who can cover both midfield positions.

We currently have a first team squad of 25 (including Cedric Soares and Mohamed Elneny!). 3 departing and one top, top player coming in would see our squad size reduce to 23. But it would feel like a reduction in quantity and an increase in quality.

Whilst Smith Rowe and Nelson are part of the first team squad, neither are really playing enough for their departure to be missed. The pair plus Nketiah departing could finance a move for a top striker could be what pushes us over the line this season.

The door is open for them to leave depart in January…

Keenos

Boxing Day football used to be a big part of Christmas for me.

After the fun and festivities of Christmas Day, it was nice to get out on Boxing Day away from the family for a few hours and escape into football.

Sadly, due to TV coverage, we rarely get a Boxing Day game anymore. And that is not actually a bad thing.

Over the Christmas period, the rail companies use the 4 days of weekend and bank holidays to have huge shut downs on their network, and smash out some engineering work for 24 hours a day. At this time of year I always see casual commuters moaning, but it really is the best time for a shut down with rail users at its lowest.

But it does make it a nightmare for those going football. Especially, if like me, you have spent Christmas Day with family outside of London.

A few years ago we had Southampton away on Boxing Day. It already would have been two trains for me to get into London from Suffolk, a train across London and then down to Southampton.

The two trains into London were both cancelled, so that would have been 2 replacement bus services. The Jubilee Line was open, but then there were no trains out of Waterloo. So it would have needed 3 replacement buses and a train, about a 6 hour journey.

Some will say “just drive”, but that would have been a 3 and a half hour journey off the abck of Christmas Day. No thanks.

I ended up not going to the game, and it would be the only one of 38 I missed that season. Instead I stayed an extra day with the family, watched the game in the local, and had some lovely cold meat and mash for dinner!

It also made me realise that there is more to life than football.

That season I was obsessed about doing 38 games. I had missed family birthdays and BBQs to go football. My whole life revolved around getting myself to the game. I had been like it for a few seasons but in 2015 I was more obsessed than ever. That was probably the height of my addiction.

Since that Boxing Day, I decided I would no longer be obsessed about trying to do the 38 game season. I would no longer put football before family.

Yes, I still try and time my family visits around international breaks, but I am now more open to missing games for big events. And I will still do 25+ league games this season.

As I sit here in the garden with a Boxing Day coffee, I wonder what my decision would have been had the West Ham game been at noon today? Would I have already have left my family, jumping on those replacement buses down to Stratford for the game?

Sky have taken that decision out of my hands. But then I am buzzing for Thursday. It can not come soon enough.

Hope you all had a Christmas Day. Spend as much time as you can with your family. Football will always be there.

Keenos