West Bromwich Albion 2-1 Arsenal: Talking Points

Arsenal slipped to fourth spot after suffering defeat at the hands of Tony Pulis’ West Brom, who came back from a one goal deficit to grab the three points. Arsene Wenger’s men took the lead through Olivier Giroud, but West Brom made a late surge in the first half, and went into the break in the lead. James Morrison scored the equaliser off a free kick, before Mikel Arteta turned the ball into his own net from a James Mclean cross. It was a bad day in the office overall for Arsenal, as they lost Francis Coquelin and his replacement Mikel Arteta to injuries and had a penalty hit over the bar by Santi Cazorla as they saw Manchester United and Leicester City overtake them in the table. Let’s look at some of the talking points from the game.

Arsenal are Treading on Thin Ice

Francis Coquelin picked up a knee injury in the first half, and his replacement, captain Mikel Arteta had to be substituted as well in the second half, with Mathieu Flamini coming on after the Spaniard picked up a calf injury. Coquelin and Arteta’s injuries come at a time when Aaron Ramsey, Alex Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere and Tomas Rosicky are all out with injuries in midfield, in addition to the likes of Walcott and Welbeck. While Ramsey, Chamberlain and Walcott are tipped to return to first team action soon, the lack of depth has showed for Arsenal and Wenger needs to shore his team up with some reinforcements, as most of the above mentioned players have poor fitness records and cannot be trusted to stay fit for the remaining duration of the season. If Wenger wants to make a serious run at the title, he needs to have a bigger squad, especially given their poor fitness record.

Arsenal Miss Aaron Ramsey

While Aaron Ramsey has only scored the one goal this season, his presence has surely had a great effect on Arsenal. Arsenal boast of a 75% win percentage with the Welshman in the starting lineup, whereas it’s 25% without him, having only won 2 of the 8 matches where he wasn’t involved from the start. With Bellerin bombing forward with pace, Aaron Ramsey provided a balance on the right hand side for Arsenal, helping in defence as well as linking play with midfield. The right hand side was exposed today as James Mclean consistently got the better of Hector Bellerin, and it was his cross that went in off Arteta to give West Brom the lead. Arsene Wenger will surely be hoping that his Welsh star will be back in action soon, as Arsenal look for a boost in form and confidence, having not won in their last three matches.

Joel Campbell is not Good Enough for Arsenal

Brought into the side due to injuries to Alex Oxlade Chamberlain and Aaron Ramsey, the Costa Rican striker managed to score his first goal for the club against Swansea. But in the matches that followed, he failed to impress, and lost his place to left back Kieran Gibbs in the starting lineup today. Coming on as a substitute, Campbell missed a glorious one on one opportunity as he mis-kicked the ball from an Alexis Sanchez cross. The Costa Rican has spent four years out on loan, but still hasn’t convinced Arsene Wenger that he deserves to be starting for Arsenal, and performances like tonight will not help his cause any further. At a time when Arsenal needed to be clinical, his missed chance left Wenger fuming, and he may see himself being offloaded very soon.

James Mclean Put in a Stellar Shift

James Mclean was probably West Brom’s best player on the pitch. Playing on the left wing, he was a constant threat, and beat Bellerin and Sanchez on multiple occasions. His strength and skill made him hard to deal with and the young Spanish full back had a hard time dealing with him. And deservingly enough, it was Mclean who made a smart run inside of Bellerin, to get to the byline and cross the ball, which was helped into the goal by Mikel Arteta as West Brom took the lead just before half time.

Alexis Sanchez has Lost his Fatigue

Over the last two weeks, there have been a lot of talks about Alexis Sanchez looking fatigued and rightly so. Despite this, he went on to play both of Chile’s matches in the International break, but as he stepped on to the pitch today, all signs of fatigue seem to have disappeared. He started out on the right wing, and zipped around with new found energy and made life hard for the West Brom defenders. He came close on a couple of occasions and was Arsenal’s brightest spark along with Mesut Ozil. This will be a major boost for Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal faithful as they need their key players to stand up during their mini injury crisis, specially with a crunch tie against Dinamo Zagreb coming up midweek.