Arsenal – West Brom Preview

West Brom
League Position: 13th, 3W, 2D, 5L, 9 GF, 13 GA, -4GD, 11 pts
Away Form: 2W, 1D, 2L, 6 GF, 8 GA, 7 pts
Last Meeting West Brom 2-2 Arsenal

We return to the Emirates tomorrow to welcome an old fiend, West Bromwich Alvion, now headed by Liverpool legend Roy Hodgson. As every Arsenal fan knows, our two league meetings with West Brom last season were among our two most awful performances last year (and, as every Arsenal fan also knows, we had plenty of awful performances last year). Last October, our decent start in the league was halted when West Brom romped their way to a 3-0 lead at the Emirates, and not even an in-form $amir Na$ri was enough to prevent us from crashing to a surprising-and-yet-predictable 2-3 loss. Then, later in the season, we traveled to the Hawthorns in a disappointing attempt to halt our Spring Collapse. West Brom Player got a free header in after just 3 minutes, and minutes into the second half, a colossal fuck-up between Almunia and Squillaci led to Odemwingie getting an open goal to put West Brom 2-0 up. Arshavin got a sweet goal to put us back into it, before van Persie squirmed the ball over the line a few minutes before the end to get us a costly draw. Suffice to say, 3 points against this bogey side of ours are in order.

West Brom have changed little since we last left them. As aforementioned, they’re managed by Hodgson, and play some pretty unspectacular football, a sharp contrast to the stylish if less successful days under Di Matteo. After a torrid start to the league this year, with 3 opening losses, the results have started to pick up a bit and they now sit in 13th, 5 points behind us. Worryingly, most of their points have come away from home- something we should be wary of tomorrow. As Homey pointed out, November is here, and the time is ripe for another Arsenal meltdown, and subsequent losing run. However, if we can keep focused, not do anything silly (enough with the Cruiyff turns, SZCZ), and just take our chances, we should be fine.

No one really stands out from West Brom’s squad. Enemy of the Arsenal Nation Ben Foster is their starting GK, since Scott Carson left for Turkey. Paul Scharner, an underrated defender of theirs, is injured and won’t play tomorrow. Their best midfielder is captain Chris Brunt, who is proficient from set pieces. Up front, Peter Odemwingie loves scoring against us, but he has had a slow start to his season, blighted by injury. Shane Long, their main summer signing, had a good start this season, getting 2 goals in his first 2 matches. However, the goals have dried up and there seems to be no signs of a renaissance at the moment. Simply put, this West Brom side look very, very beatable and anything less than a win tomorrow will frankly be a disaster.

Team news are, thankfully, sparse and promising. Chamakh and Gibbs are still out- for approx. 2 weeks. I’m started to get worried about Gibbs’ condition- it’s starting to look like he won’t be back until December. Diaby is naturally still out. Other than that, there appears to be no further injuries from the Marseille game. It’s pretty great, to have a long run of games and suffer from any significant injuries. Now please excuse me while I go knock on a giant piece of wood.

Pretty straightforward lineup for tomorrow, methinks:

Szczesny

Jenkinson   Koscielny   Vermaelen  Santos

Song   Arteta

Walcott    Ramsey    Gervinho

van Persie

Subs: Fabianski, Djourou, Mertesacker, Frimpong, Benanyoun, Arshavin, Park

Wenger gambled when he rested some of our players on Tuesday, and to be honest I don’t think he failed. Did he succeed? No, if you base that on the result we got against Marseille. But looking more in depth, Vermaelen got an invaluable 90 minutes to get back on track, Jenkinson had another good performance, Koscielny was rested after a month of non-stop playing, and van Persie only played 40 or so minutes. So most of our first team are still fully fit and match-ready, and that’s a good thing. For that reason, we should expect our currently available first team to start tomorrow- there really is no other option in order to beat West Brom. Jenkinson, 8-2 nightmares aside, has been promising this season, and he’ll continue to start, especially when the other option is the erratic Djourou. At CB, Vermaelen has to start, but there’s a small question over who will partner him. Kos obviously has the advantage of not playing on Tuesday, and the consensus was that he was being rested, not benched. And while Mertesacker has had a decent start to life at Arsenal, and has shown that we finally have more than one defender to rely on, Kos and TV5 were awesome at the start of the season, and Kos doesn’t deserve to be benched after his excellent performances during our current run. So, barring a big surprise, it has to be Kos and Vermaelen at the back for us, for the first time since August.

In midfield and attack, we’ll probably see the same 6 who started against Chelsea last Saturday. Our midfield has gelled impressively game after game, and seeing how the complement each other is very nice- Arteta has been very good in tracking back and maintaining possession and pressure, allowing Song and Ramsey to go up front and show their creative sides. Switching that rhythm wouldn’t be very productive, and Wenger doesn’t seem to particularly like playing Benayoun anyways. And Coquelin and Frimpong are strictly backups, especially with the depth we have right now. Up front, Gervinho-Walcott-van Persie seems to be coming into its own, and that will continue tomorrow. Arshavin and Park will come in if needed.

Well, there’s not much more to say other than I fully expect to get 3 points tomorrow. West Brom look weak, we look progressively stronger, we’re at home, we have a near full squad, and the mood is one of promise. The setting is perfect for us to stumble and get a toxic draw or loss, but I have confidence this team has gained the sufficient strength to stay concentrated and do what is needed. Come on Arsenal!

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Category: Fixtures, Players, Premiership, Preview, W.B.A.