Former Arsenal playmaker Paul Merson believes the Gunners’ defensive vulnerabilities could leave them exposed once again at the London Stadium.

Unai Emery’s side have kept just three clean sheets this season, and Merson thinks that they will concede against West Ham this afternoon:

“Arsenal struggle to stop goals going in and West Ham’s best form of defence is attack. I don’t know how Arsenal will cope with the likes of Carroll, Arnautovic and Anderson, but the Gunners are good going forward so it makes for an entertaining game.”

The TV pundit has gone for a 2-2 draw with Arsenal also backed to exploit the Hammers’ own weaknesses at the back.

Manuel Pellegrini’s team have been equally as porous defensively this campaign and have kept the same amount of clean sheets as the Gunners.

They will also be without first-choice centre-half Fabian Balbuena who is set to be sidelined for another two months after undergoing a knee operation.

Arsenal do have better defensive options heading into the game. The likes of Laurent Koscielny, Shkodran Mustafi and Nacho Monreal have all been declared fit for the London derby.

Konstantinos Mavropanos has also returned to training, but the Greek defender will need to build up his match fitness in the Under 23s before being selected for the first team.