Arsenal vs West Brom (16/17)

Team news:
Arsenal: Aaron Ramsey (toe) and Danny Welbeck (knee) are in full training for Arsenal, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (hamstring) is "days away" from a return, says Arsene Wenger. Shkodran Mustafi (hamstring) remains out.

West Brom: Team news to come.


MANAGER
We know precisely what to expect from a Tony Pulis side: deep defending and long balls. Although West Bromwich Albion are capable of good football on their day, and Pulis has invested talented forwards like Nacer Chadli, the Baggies’ approach is largely about rudimentary, direct football. Nevertheless, they remain extremely difficult to break down.

In goal, the most telling part of Ben Foster’s season is that he has the worst pass completion rate in the entire Premier League. It’s not that he can’t pass, simply that he’s under strict instructions to hit long balls whenever he can. Foster plays behind a defence which is, in general, comprised of four centre backs.

The most talented of the defensive options, Jonny Evans, looks set to miss out through injury, which means Craig Dawson, Gareth McAuley and Jonas Olsson are likely to start, probably with Allan Nyom playing left-back.

The Cameroon international is a rare beast – a natural full back in a Pulis side – although he’s also 6ft 2in, and more of a right back than a left back. This means he tucks inside and remains close to the centre backs, denying space for the opposition to play through balls. West Brom will sit very deep, probably on the edge of their own penalty box for long periods.


FORMATION
Pulis will deploy a 4-5-1 formation, although the midfield can be tilted in two ways. Sometimes Argentine Claudio Yacob sits deep and protects the defence by himself, with Darren Fletcher playing a more advanced role, and sometimes Fletcher acts his partner and forms a strict, disciplined midfield duo. The former is probably more likely, with James Morrison – an intelligent, creative footballer – completing the midfield trio.

STRENGTHS
Going forward, Chadli made a flying start to life at the Hawthorns with four goals in five matches, but a knee injury meant he missed most of November and hasn’t fully regained his sharpness. Still, the Belgian’s off-the-ball movement is excellent and he looks well suited to West Brom’s counter-attacking gameplan too.

Matt Philips is more of a classic winger and should start on the opposite flank, although Pulis usually manages to squeeze in Chris Brunt somewhere – at left back, in central midfield or on the flank. Brunt boasts a tremendous left-footed delivery, useful in both open play and at set-pieces.


DANGERMAN
Up front, Salomon Rondon will receive little support but has proved himself an excellent lone centre forward, holding up possession effectively and getting on the end of crosses. His recent hat-trick against Swansea was only the second all-headed hat-trick in Premier League history, after Duncan Ferguson did so for Everton against Bolton 19 years ago. Arsenal must push up and keep him away from goal.

Pulis has some decent super subs up his sleeve. James McClean is a dangerous, speedy winger, Craig Gardner can do a job in midfield, while Hal Robson-Kanu has been used as a substitute in 12 of the 13 matches since he joined the club after his Euro 2016 heroics. However, don’t expect Pulis to go chasing the game if the scores are level.

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20161223/scouting-report-arsenal-v-west-brom

I wonder which Arsenal would show up?

Top 4 battle starts Monday.

Probably a 1-1 game

I hope Wenger has forgive whatever Lucas has done and give him a chance again.


------------------------------Cech---------------------------------

Bellerin-----------Gabriel----------Koscielny------------Gibbs

----------------Xhaka---------Coquelin--------------------------

Theo--------------------Ozil-------------------------Lucas

---------------------Sanchez-------------------------------------

Liverpool: #ynwa
Arsenal: #yawn

Cech; Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Gibbs; Coquelin, Xhaka; Alexis, Ozil, Iwobi; Giroud

Ospina, Holding, Monreal, Elneny, Ramsey, Jeff, Lucas

Wtf do we need Xhaka AND Coquelin vs WBA

Also not confident that we will create many chances with Iwobi-Giroud-Alexis.

Will be a close game.

Lots of useless passing and not enough shots, which you can associate every time we play Alexis and Giroud together.

We are the perfect opposition for a Pulis team.

80% possession and one shot on target.

I think we going to lose this game if it continues this way.

If you're ever struggling to fall asleep, just watch an Arsenal game...

Match worth watching?

nope it was as expected at home vs Pulis side
highlights would do

Yea figured. Woke up at HT and saw the stats + score. Went back to bed lmao

Heard Perez's cameo was decent. Can't wait to see him in the FA Cup.

Lucas, at least, showed a willingness to run in behind and go down the outside of players. He payed one killer cross that should have been a tap in for somebody but somehow our players missed it.

Before today he had only played 3 minutes since his hat-trick vs Basel. He's been horribly underused.

Today was just another reminder that Alexis and Giroud are incompatible. Alexis wants movement  so he can play killer passes, but Giroud wants the ball to feet in a crowd. On the whole even though I felt there was a desire to pass the ball quickly, it was tough to penetrate West Brom's back six with the set-up we had. Alexis and Iwobi were narrow, while Ozil dropped deep to be more involved in the build-up with Xhaka. We really needed penetration from somewhere - runs from deep, or runs in behind. Ramsey, Walcott, Lucas - these types of players were needed.

Hopefully Walcott will be back for Palace as it'll be the same type of game.

Interesting.

I have no idea how Coquelin did today but seeing the stats, I really don't know why he was needed at all?

Even if Ramsey isn't fit. Could have gone with Iwobi-Xhaka just to see how that would do.

He had his usual game, but yeah he wasn't needed. West Brom were playing 6-3-1 with Phillips and Brunt tracking out fullbacks all the way back into defence, so their way up the pitch was limited to just Rondon who was always in a 1v2 against Koscielny and Gabriel. Even without counter-pressing WBA would have turned the ball over.

Meanwhile Xhaka completed a huge 133 passes and nothing was stopping him from getting the ball off the centre backs. Our other centre mid needed to provide drive and runs in behind.

It's just a case of using our squad properly. In games against teams that play as deep and negatively as WBA we don't need Coquelin in there. Elneny and Ramsey should be able to add more going forward without losing the pressing. Then if we're still looking for a goal in the last 20 mins we don't need to waste a sub swapping one CM for another.

Was Gibbs looking good before he got injured?

CONGARTZ

This was a really frustrating match and the team didn't play especially well. But a clean sheet, a late winner from Giroud ... those are positives that help us shift back on track after the Everton & Man City losses. I'll take this over a loss that was "promising" and "nearly" there, thanks.

I agree Lucas should get some more minutes. I think he can bring something interesting to the team.

Was a very decent performance. Even the in-form Chelsea had trouble with WBA. A clean sheet and Ozist after eons, so pretty happy.

It is clear we're missing Cazorla, which plays a part in Oezil pulling his Houdini act frequently. Not going to absolve him of all the blame, as I believe he could've put a li'l bit more effort for that Lucas cross. However, I feel the absence of Cazorla is affecting Oezil the most. No Cazorla, means there's no one to bring the ball from the midfield. Xhaka despite having decent technique is no playmaker. He can probably play alongside one but cannot be one. He doesn't come up the field for he cannot recover. Coq can recover but has suspect passing (though he seems to be training on it & improving). Thus, Oezil has to drop deep to get the ball and also weave his magic in the final third. In short, he is playing the role of both Cazorla and Oezil but ends up doing neither properly. Oezil dropping deep prompts Coq to go upfield where he occupies all the promising positions but doesn't know how to create and ends up occupying the position more suited for someone who can create better. It is easy to notice, all the promising positions where Coq is found, it should rightfully be Oezil if he didn't drop deep.  That said, was quite happy to see the assist as it was good one, unlike his previous ones this season, which are the assist equivalents of tap-ins. He was making good runs as well. Improved show, albeit vs WBA.

Either zonal marking is tosh or we're making a meal out of it. Yacob was totally unmarked and he could've easily won the game for WBA. I believe he ran past a static Oezil. Why do we still have defend set pieces, when it is obvious he doesn't want to/he can't? Our dead ball defending must improve, if we even want to challenge for the title CL spots, let alone securing it.

On the other end, we need to be ruthless in front of goal. There were two or three chances, where we should've scored. Seems like Iwobi and other Arsenal players have found this uncanny ability to shoot straight at defenders, even when you have the whole goalmouth gaping.

Don't understand Coq vs Elneny debate in this scenario. Elneny doesn't add much to the attack barring the occasional long shot. At least Coq takes up good positions, which might ultimately benefit us, as it did vs Hull/Everton. His anticipation ensure a lot of attacks can be snuffed out. Would've loved to try Ramsey there. Even Iwobi is an interesting experiment there, as he can hold the wall and can bring the ball from the midfield a la Cazorla. But his poor defensive skills would've deterred AW from trying Iwobi in the center, especially after our recent poor form.

Lucas deserves more minutes. Especially with us playing two games in three days next week, even starting Lucas in one of the games can benefit the usual starters.

Anyways, what was the fight b/w Lucas and Gabriel about?