If we manage to leave the Hawthorns with all three points, we will be only four points behind Manchester United which is interesting at this stage. The title is well and truly out of sight for all teams not just Arsenal but aiming for a strong second half to the season has to be our aim. If we can correct our shortcomings then we should be aiming for second, I’m sure the rest of the chasing pack will have the same target.
After our slip up last weekend we need to get back on track, we were on a good run until then. It's a funny old league this season. Aside from the steam train that is Manchester City, it looks like many teams can stumble over the course of the season as Manchester United showed at Huddersfield yesterday. Chelsea were mighty close to going 3-1 down with half an hour to go at the Bridge before turning it around. We certainly have our own issues to deal with but we forget that others are far from invincible
My interest for International football is slim to none really, it has been since I was a kid. Even though this is the case, I accepted two VIP tickets for the England vs Slovenia match at Wembley as I thought my 10-year-old son may enjoy the experience. No joke, the most entertaining part of the evening came in the second half as fans deciding to try and land paper aeroplanes on the pitch was a far more enjoyable way to pass the time than to pay attention to the dour football down below us. I did my very best to ignore the rest of the football until now and have decided to wait for the Arsenal to return to get my football juices flowing once more. Usually, I'd be rocking back and forth in a darkened room, fighting for my Arsenal fix but for some strange reason I am not feeling it, I don't have the same excitement as I have felt in the past. Hopefully, that changes when I read the confirmation of the team line up, that usually flicks on the pre-match nerves
Could tonight be the night where we dust off the old dial-up modem and plug in AÖL? Ok so that sounded much better in my head but the question still stands. We have yet to see Alexis Sanchez and Alexander Lacazette on the same pitch for even a minute let alone all three of Özil, Alexis and Lacazette starting together.
That being all said and done, Arsene is right. Conte is known as a tactical genius by all sundry yet Arsene Wenger has beaten him in 3 of our last 4 matches. If you want to disregard the Community Shield that is fair enough but there is no getting away from the fact that we were by far the superior team at home last season and the FA Cup final. In the cup final, Ramsey made many runs into Chelsea's half and caused their midfield all sorts of problems. We were dominant and took the game to them. They were not able to exploit any perceived weaknesses from us because perhaps we just
The wing backs will be very interesting. Two of our left back/wing backs seem to be in our starting 11, which does not give us much flexibility when it comes to rotation. This would have been Kieran Gibbs territory but not anymore. I suspect we will have to play Kolašinac on Thursday and Sunday. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the course of the season because he can’t play in every competition and Nacho Monreal is no spring chicken
That midfield three has a little bit of everything, well apart from being able to deal with being pressed. That aside, we have a player in Ramsey who can get forward and cause mismatches in the final third, Xhaka can break lines with his passing and Coquelin can do his Police Officer role in protecting those around him. While the front three can have pretty much all the freedom they need to pull Bournemouth around
It is great that Laurent Koscielny is back in the squad, not only because of his importance individually but at present it seems as if Koscielny is the only natural centre back who Arsene has unequivocal faith in right now. I am very intrigued to see who else plays in that back three. If Mustafi comes out then it may give us some answers to the recent speculation linking him away from the club. If Mustafi keeps his place in the side, would you be surprised of Kolašinac was demoted to the bench in favour of either Bellerin or Oxlade-Chamberlain at left wing back? It's not something I would like to see but I can certainly see that happening
This is why I do not expect to see many changes tonight. I’ve read a few predicted line ups and there seems to be an urge to see the likes of Lucas Perez, Kieran Gibbs and the like and I understand the yearning to want to see something different, something new especially in the case of Lucas Perez but I get the feeling that Arsene feels he has something now. Our last two performances in the league will have Arsene giddy like a kid and he will want this group of players to continue to grow their relationships on the pitch. Plus of course the season is only a few weeks old, we haven’t really entered into two game a week territory just yet.
But what is the answer? We’ve not found an answer to it for a while now. I find it difficult to work out how much of that is an Arsenal issue or a build up from the back issue that all teams struggle with. Either way, we need to find some answers and not find ourselves struggling to pass the ball quickly due to not playing for 12 days or whatever it is and also continuing our run of slow starts. We get this wrong in the first 25 minutes and we can find ourselves 2-0 down