Watching the Arsenal makes me nervous and I could do with a calming early goal. That would do wonders for my heart. I would love us to start aggressively, move the ball quickly and be clinical when in front of goal. If we do grab that first goal then I hope we do not take our foot off the pedal and we

The boing, boing Baggies come bouncing into town this afternoon as the midland club entertain the Gunners at the Emirates. Arsenal did not find West Brom very entertaining last season as they took four points from us over the two games. The 3-2 defeat at the Emirates last season sticks in the craw somewhat. Manuel Almunia’s howlers will remain the quickest memory of that defeat but it was more the lacklustre approach from the home side that frustrated me more than anything else. Even with Almunia not at his best we would have won that game if we approached it correctly from the start. It was Carling cup boy Nasri that grabbed two late goals that day but it was not enough.

This time around, I don’t imagine that experienced heads such as Mikel Arteta and Thomas Vermaelen would allow that attitude creep back in this afternoon at 3pm.

Our opposition today are likely to have a different approach to the game than the team that bravely went toe to toe with us successfully last season, a more conservative Roy Hodgson replaced the offensive Roberto Di Matteo and since then Woy has done a fantastic job in turning around West Brom’s fortunes and successfully avoiding the drop.

While the match last weekend has got everyone on a high, got the Arsenal fan base buzzing again, I cannot help but feel like it is these type of matches that will shape our season in the end.

Breaking down defensive teams at home was a problem for Arsenal last season especially towards the end of the season. A confidence drained Arsenal team found it difficult to raise the tempo of matches which resulted in plenty of possession without the penetration needed to score the goals and win the games.

Our home record so far this season has been good, winning all but one when down to ten men against Liverpool, but we are still waiting to see the team click offensively, waiting for goals to rain in from all angles. This has not yet happened and the last 20 minutes of our games have largely been tense affairs.

At Stamford Bridge last weekend, our attacking players gelled and played well at the same time, which has been rare this season. Some of that could be down to how Chelsea allowed us to play but we need to have more players on top of their game along with van Persie.

Watching the Arsenal makes me nervous and I could do with a calming early goal. That would do wonders for my heart. I would love us to start aggressively, move the ball quickly and be clinical when in front of goal. If we do grab that first goal then I hope we do not take our foot off the pedal and we continue to carve out chances.

It might sound a bit presumptuous but I am not sure if just a victory is enough to help this Arsenal team take that next step, we need to win and win well. I do not want to come across as complacent because last season against this same side both home and away is more than enough to take any Gooner down a peg or two but if we are to get back to the top four places then struggling at home every other week will not always result in victory.

I expect rested duo Laurent Koscielny and Robin van Persie to come back into the team. Wenger may not see it that way though. Mertesacker and Vermaelen struck up a good partnership in midweek against Marseille but if Arsene doesn’t want to get into my bad books then he better restore Koscielny to the starting eleven to continue the excellent partnership he struck up with Vermaelen before he got injured.

I would say that Theo Walcott could well be in line for a rest given that he has started all the last few matches as well as playing for his country. If Arsene does decided to rotate Theo then Arshavin could come in on the left and Gervinho move over to the right.

Like I mentioned in a piece yesterday about Andre Santos, I am interested to watch the relationship between our attacking Brazilian and Thomas Vermaelen and our deeper midfielders. Santos could be the bus parking team’s nightmare.

Like most match preview’s that I have written and will write, we need to win this game, especially as the momentum has been growing over the weeks. Arsene, remove that handbrake before you forget and lets get our football going again and score some much needed goals for the Emirates faithful.

COYG.

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up: