Neil: Hammers won't play rough

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"What's the Blackburn way?" asked a wide-eyed Neill, who clocked up six bookings against the Gunners in the last three seasons with Rovers.

Neill: Aggressive game

Neill was in the Blackburn line-up castigated by Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger for kicking his men off the park in the 2005 FA Cup semi-final, but the Hammers skipper insisted he had tempered his outlook.

"You have to approach it in the right manner and try to play with a tempo," he said. "We have to close them down. If we give them time (on the ball) they will absolutely ruin us.

"So, yes, we have to be up in their faces. But I'd call it a West Ham working performance. I wouldn't call it the Blackburn way."

Neill had the satisfaction of winning for West Ham at the Emirates last season.

"We beat them 1-0, although if it had been a boxing match, we'd have had to throw the towel in," he admitted.

"We ground it out and stuck together. But you always know against Arsenal you can have them for 89 minutes, then they only need one flash of brilliance from one of any number of their players and that's it."

At least West Ham have the benefit of Arsenal old boy Freddie Ljungberg's knowledge about his old team to help them this time.

West Ham boss Alan Curbishley said: "Arsene Wenger didn't want to let Freddie go, but Freddie wanted a new challenge. We've had a chat with him about one or two things, we're aware of some of the things we might try and about what Arsenal like to do.

"But we need a passionate start and see where it takes us."