West Ham boss David Moyes has announced important news about Lucas Paqueta, which could be bad news for Arsenal.
West Ham fans have not had much to cheer about since their memorable 2-0 win at Arsenal just before the turn of the year.
The Hammers have played six games since that victory over the Gunners, but have yet to win in 2024.
Now West Ham are preparing to face Arsenal and Declan Rice again this weekend at the London Stadium, desperately hoping for a third win over them this season.
Given recent form, West Ham’s chances are low.
David Moyes has admitted that his team, without the injured Lucas Paquet, lacks balance and creativity.
This was again evident in the 0:3 defeat against Man United.
Meanwhile, Arsenal beat Liverpool 3-1 before their match against West Ham.
However, there may be some welcome good news for the Kladivars.
The Scot admitted that he is finding it difficult to find answers to the problems he has with Paqueta.
But he hopes that a solution is just around the corner – in the shape of the Brazilian magnifico.
Moyes revealed after the defeat to Man United that Paqueta could return for the game against Arsenal.
“We are looking for a solution because we have not been at our best for a month,” Moyes said at the post-match press conference.
“But if you look at our form up to January, before the players went to the African nations or before we got injured with Paqueta (the form was good).
“In this month or so we have struggled to get the right balance in the team … we are a little bit short of the structure we want. But we are trying our best to put together a team that can bring us results…
“You know, we hope that Paqueta is only a week or two away, so in two weeks’ time you might not be talking about that (the team’s imbalance) but you’ll be saying ‘we’ve got Paqueta back and things are looking a lot better’ and we’ll have a lot more choices.”
Just having Paqueta back in the squad for the Arsenal game would be a big improvement for everyone.
West Ham have no real guile without him.
It would be somewhat ironic if the West Ham star returned for the match with the Gunners. It was against Arsenal at the Emirates that he had a problem in the warm-up.
Paqueta started the game but had to go off injured. A week later he was able to play in the cup match against Bristol City and scored a goal for West Ham, but then the problem got worse and he has been out since then.