Posts Tagged ‘West Brom’

Well apologies all for the lack of updates, what can I say it is summer and I have been partying it up a bit!
But now the summer is drawing to a close and the new season has begun so you can be assured of regular updates here at Arsenal Online.

So, the new Premier League season is under way, and Arsenal got off to a decent start by beating West Brom 1-0 at the Emirates.
It wasn’t a stellar match by any standard, but it was the right result on the first match of the season (Which Spurs and Man Utd both couldn’t manage ), and it was a better Arsenal Team performance than the Champions League qualifier against FC Twente.

This is how they lined up :

Almunia,
Sagna, Gallas, Djourou, Clichy,
Walcott (Toure 72), Eboue, Denilson, Nasri,
Adebayor, Bendtner (Van Persie 69).

Now that Eboue has little chance of getting his old place in the right of defence back from Sagna, he looks likely to play a filling-in role for others in defence and midfield more regularly. And while Arsenal definitely missed Cesc’s set-up play, Eboue actually had a pretty good game covering for him in midfield.

Adebayor had a pretty dreadful match up front, failing to take any of his chances and missing a bit of a sitter in the second half. That said, he always works hard and digs in to help the team, but he is there to score goals! I think I heard him get booed by Arsenal fans at one point when he attempted to strike in from a narrow angle when Nasri was clear in the centre. Not sure about that, but he is a man with something to prove this year.

Speaking of Nasri, the little guy had a great game again, he looks great on the ball and he managed to pop up in the right place to score a goal on his Premier League debut. He looks to be fitting into the side very well and hopefully should only improve as he gets more games under his belt.

Anyway, job done for Arsenal. West Brom really didn’t show too much menace, but a 1-0 scoreline always gives this Gooner a dodgy feeling towards the end (I never liked that Go West song anyway) and I was a little nervous, despite West Brom’s lack of threat, you never know! (I am not what you would call an optimist ) As for the Brom, I think they will be helped a lot this season by Scott Carson saving their arses! They didn’t really look comfortable against us, never really got much of a passing game going, but the Emirates is a tough place to come on the first day of the season. I don’t think they are too bad a side though, I think they might have enough to scare a few teams this year. I did quite the look of Miller up front, maybe not the most skilful player, but the guy is a beast! The young lad Barnett in defence looks like he could become a decent defender in the future too.

Well not much more to say about the West Brom game, it wasn’t the toughest game but 3 points board, Man Utd drew and Spurs lost, what more could a Gooner ask for?
Next up Arsenal are away to Fulham (Saturday, 17:30) which should be a little more of a test and then it’s time to stick a few past McClaren’s Twente in midweek.

In Arsenal Online site news, I have been hard at work over the weekend on a new design for the site, the design is almost finished and I should begin slicing and coding it up soon. Even got the Mrs. to sketch up a cartoon Gunnersaurus so that’s definitely something to look out for. Keep ‘em peeled!

Here’s some highlights of the game :