Arsenal Vs West Brom: Another Banana Skin On The Cards?

West Brom are a team which started very well in the league this season, which saw them stay in the top 4 of the EPL table for much of the season so far. Infact, they only dropped to 5th after last week's defeat. However, most expected their fine run to come to an end.

Giroud Not "there" Yet?

West Brom, by no means, are in a disaster. They are still 5 points ahead of Arsenal and 3 clear of 6th placed Everton. They might not be as potent as they were early in the season when they often outplayed even the big boys of the Premier League but they did enough to prove that they could hurt even the best. They certainly have quality players in their team who could hurt any team with Odemwinge and Shane Long leading their ranks.

Arsenal have been far from convincing this season. Our performance is quite rightly reflected by our current league position, a paltry 10th! We are yet to see a convincing performance, both attacking wise and defensive wise from Arsenal this season. When we have tried to be defensive, we have found it hard to score goals at the other end. And when we have tried to be attacking, we have left gaping holes at the back for the other teams to exploit. We just have not found that balance yet.

Podolski and Wallcot are out for the match and I don't know where the goals will come from. Giroud has been improving but he has not become "dependable" yet(maybe that is why he recently claimed he picked the wrong time to join Arsenal!). With Odemwinge and Shane Long in the opposite team, Arsenal will do well if they can keep a clean sheet, which is most unlikely. I have a "Banana-Skin" feeling about this match....again!

CHIT-CHAT

Today is a very important day for Arsenal FC. An important player of our squad,Jack Wilshere is playing tonight for the Arsenal reserves after a 14 month injury layoff that saw him miss the entire season last year.

It will be some time before he makes the first team.But non the less, it is an important step towards making it to the first squad.His return is good news for Arsenal who could benefit from the return of the outstanding player.His return is now more important as Diaby is out injured and we need that "assured" type of player in our midfield like Wilshere who can dictate the pace of the came while also creating countless scoring opportunities.

Midfield however is not at the top list of my concerns because it is a position where we have surplus replacements, also rightly claimed by Le Boss.My main concern is the striker's position. I do not(sadly) see any player in that position at Arsenal who is capable of scoring 20+ goals this season.Even more worrying is the fact that there are 20+ goal scoring talents at clubs that have traditionally been labelled as clubs below Arsenal. Everton have Anichebe and Jelavich (maybe Fellaini too),Sunderland(Fletcher),Aston Villa(Darren Bent),Tottenham(Jermain Defoe,Adebayor and maybe GarethBale), Southampton(RickieLambert), Reading (Shane Long).A club like Arsenal must have a world class striker,I don't see one at the moment. Gervinho could surprise me and score 20+ but he seems to be scared too many times to score especially when it matters(misses against Man City and Chelsea this season).Giroud too seems totally lost at Arsenal.He is already a flop to me.He missed  two chances that could have given us 4 points.Although, I will add that this is his first season and he will take time to settle.Maybe next season he will do better.But I would suggest Arsenal fans not to expect many goals from him this season. Podolski is a great finisher no doubt, but the manager is playing him at the left where he will not get many opportunities to score.And who is our other option?Chamakh? I think the manager knows how "good" Chamakh is.So he would prefer to use a false striker maybe like Barcelona and more recently by Spain.This could be a good option but what we must realize is that WE ARE NO BARCELONA or SPAIN.Our other option,Wallcott is pacey but too "lean" to be a striker in the Premier League.

The way I see it, I think Arsene should mix the "false striker" and the traditional number 9 kind of play with Gervinho upfront and maybe Giroud once in a while.It will be more likely for us to get goals then....ofcourse, from one of our midfielder! 

THE AFTERMATH

I still feel drowsy from watching the late night match between Barcelona and Seville last night.What a match it was!Barcelona came back fro 2-1 down to defeat Seville 3-2 in the dying moments of the match.How I wished Arsenal could achieve the same feat earlier in the evening.But bygones are bygones.It is a new day and we have to move on.No use in complaining about "what could have been" or "what should have been."

So what position are we after yesterday's defeat?We are at 7th with 9 points.Chelsea are of course 1st with 16 points.Already, the gap is of 7 points!Second placed Everton(surprise!) are at 13 points. No need for us to panic just yet.Chelsea will eventually drop points.The table is not as much a concern to me as the Arsenal squad is at the moment.We lost "glass-ankled" Diaby yesterday.A pity really, he could have given so much to  our team.But it is evident that he is too injury-prone to be playing or for that matter staying at Arsenal in my opinion.Van Persie too was injury prone,he played at least 15-20 games per season.

Another concern for me is that the players looked so down at the final whistle yesterday.The media and the fans alike, before the match predicted the first loss of the season for Chelsea, which might have raised expectations in our players that they could(or maybe would) win the match.But, they were to be disappointed at the end of the day.This might also have had a negative effect on some of our players who seemed so confident before the match.I wonder if this will have longer impacts on our play?I hope it does not and hope the players will pick themselves up after the defeat.

After the match, Arsene said about the missed chance by Giroud at the death, "He should have scored." Well Giroud has been a total flop for me so far.I don't think the manager thinks he is a hit too.He did not start the last too match,did he?And not counting the minor chances,he missed two very important chances, one against Stoke to win the match and the one against Chelsea yesterday that would have given us a point.
Arsene does not and has not criticized his players in the past.But in case of Giroud, it seems even Le Boss is finding it hard to keep quite!Yet,I hope Giroud does well although I am not sure this season will be a season to remember for him in all honesty.