Arsenal can take a big step towards winning the Premier League top-four race when they lock horns with West Ham United at the London Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
London derbies have been a mixed bag for the Gunners this season as three of their 11 defeats have come against teams from the capital - most recently a 3-0 reverse at the hands of Crystal Palace at the beginning of the month which kickstarted a run of three straight losses.
However, Mikel Arteta has since overseen somewhat of a mini resurgence from his Arsenal side over the past 10 days and it actually began with a 4-2 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge which breathed new life into the battle to secure Champions League football for next season.
READ MORE: Every word Mikel Arteta said on Partey, Tomiyasu, Bellerin's future and West Ham
With Sunday's fixture the latest in a run of 'cup finals', Arteta will know the importance of Arsenal completing a Premier League double over the Hammers having won the reverse fixture 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium thanks to goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe.
In what could turn out to be one of two massive advantages for the visitors to east London, they will be the fresher of the two sides. This is due to having a full eight days to prepare whilst David Moyes' side were in Europa League semi-final first-leg action against Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday night.
The second advantage is that after losing 2-1 at home to the Bundesliga side, it may make it easier for Moyes to rest key players such as Declan Rice, Michail Antonio and Jarrod Bowen against Arsenal in order to keep them fresh for next week's second leg in Germany.
Although it should be pointed out that the Hammers boss doesn't exactly have too much room to manoeuver when it comes to rotating his first-team squad amid a central defensive crisis that will see long-term absentees Issa Diop and Angelo Ogbonna miss out against the Gunners.
"Issa is making a really good recovery and there’s always an outside chance he'll be back before the end of the season," Moyes revealed. We were worried and didn’t think he would be, but we think there is a good chance that he could be. But we can’t confirm that at this moment.
"Angelo has had an ACL injury but he’s back and has started running on the grass, which is great news. But the chances of being fit for some time this season… I very much doubt it."
With Craig Dawson serving a one-match suspension after being sent off against Chelsea last weekend that makes it three senior players whom Moyes will be without for the visit of the Gunners. But the good news is that Kurt Zouma is in contention after making a surprise return against Frankfurt to ease the Hammers' centre-back crisis.
