Arsenal vs West Ham team news: Theo Walcott to start just third Premier League game of the season with Danny Welbeck dropped

Walcott will start just his third Premier League game of the season

Tom Sheen
Saturday 14 March 2015 15:13 GMT
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Theo Walcott
Theo Walcott (GETTY IMAGES)

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Arsene Wenger will put winger Theo Walcott into the starting line-up for just the third time in the Premier League this season.

The move means that Danny Welbeck, the Arsenal hero at Manchester United, is dropped to the bench as Wenger makes four changes to the team that won at Old Trafford.

David Ospina returns for Wojciech Szczesny in goal, Calum Chambers replaces Hector Bellerin at right-back and Olivier Giroud also comes in, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain out for a month after picking up an injury on Monday night.

For West Ham, Sam Allardyce has made a whopping four changes to the team that narrowly lost to Chelsea, with an injury crisis enveloping the squad.

Carl Jenkinson can't play against his parent club, with Andy O'Brien in at right-back, and there are two more changes to the back four with James Collins coming in and Cheikhou Kouyate dropping back to defence with James Tomkins and Winston Reid both out.

Alex Song returns against his former club, while Matt Jarvis comes in for Enner Valencia.

Allardyce has also placed two academy products, Emmanuel Onariase and Josh Cullen, on the bench.

LINE-UPS:

Arsenal: Ospina, Chambers, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Ramsey, Walcott, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud.

Subs: Szczesny, Gibbs, Bellerin, Flamini, Cazorla, Welbeck, Akpom

West Ham: Adrian, O'Brien, Collins, Kouyate, Cresswell, Song, Noble, Nolan Jarvis, Downing, Sakho,

Subs: Jaaskelainen, Demel, Onariase, Poyet, Cullen, Amalfitano, Nene

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