Nasri carved open the Albion defence and Ade tried to pull off the classic Henry finish by slotting the ball past the keeper’s left and into the bottom corner

Match Review – Arsenal 1 West Brom 0 – Premier League

I’ve read a few reports that West Brom were unlucky not to snatch a point? Really? Not from my perspective. Sure they played some decent football and weren’t disgraced defensively, but if anything they were fortunate not to suffer a heavier defeat were it not for some profligacy in front of goal from the Arsenal front-line. We should have killed the game off, but on the first day of the season the result is paramount and we managed to pick up all three points. You start as you meant to go on. Make no mistake, West Brom were no mugs and are not the sort to park the bus and play 11 men behind the ball, so fair play to them.

I met my mate Troy outside the stadium fifteen minutes prior to kick-off. We managed to get our seats just as Elvis started blaring out, and then came the team news: Kolo’s return from injury only saw him warrant a place on the bench as Djourou rightly remained alongside Cap’n Willy, whilst Nasri came in for Ramsey which led to re-jig in middle that saw Eboue move infield. The one change that concerned me was Bendtner for RvP, but the Dutchman took his place on the bench so any injury he might have been carrying would have been minor.

After a minute or so I remarked to Troy how this time last year we were already a goal down. We promptly went up the other end to right that wrong. Some excellent play down the left between Gael and Denilson saw the Brazilian advance into the box before cutting it back to Samir Nasri who slid it home. Never mind being a replacement for Hleb, that was positively Pires. So much so that the “Super Bob Pires” song was adopted for the boy Nasri. The perfect start, could we kick on from here?

Immediately from the restart West Brom won a free-kick in dangerous territory. From my seats high up in the North End, it looked a lot closer than it was and there were a few hearts in mouths around me. Having not conceded ASAP after scoring, we nearly doubled our lead merely two minutes later. More exquisite interplay down the left flank saw Adebayor get to the byline and stand it up to the back stick where Theo was waiting. He did the right thing in sending his header back in the direction it was coming from but it was blocked. From my position at the opposite end of the stadium, it looked like handball but replays confirmed it wasn’t. A shame that Theo couldn’t get a goal because his confidence would have rocketed. He is a confidence player and his miss was reflected in his general play throughout the rest of the game as he produced a barely average performance from his favoured right-wing position. Every time he gets the ball, the crowd as a whole shout: “Go on Theo!”, hoping for a replay of that magical moment at Anfield. While that was the making of Theo, right now it might be hindering him as everyone expects him to do the same thing every time he is in possession, an impossible standard to live up to.

We were having a field day down the left. Nasri had the gall to take a shot from outside the area – who the f*ck does he think he is?! Hasn’t anyone told him that we simply DON’T do that? In all seriousness, I hope that instinct doesn’t get coached away. The more players we have shooting from outside the area, the better. Speaking of which, in the tenth minute Willy stepped out of defence and did his best impression of Kolo Toure by arrowing a 30-yards fizzer that whistled past the post.

Mean Lean mentioned in his MyVision on Friday that we need to maintain our high tempo from the off, and I’m happy to say we flew out of the traps. Despite a deflected effort from Sagna, a header sent wide by Bendtner and yet another long-range effort from Nasri, we couldn’t add to our tally in the first period. West Brom’s best chance of the opening half came on the half-hour as Gallas was beaten to a long ball by Miller. The beneficiary of the flick on was Kim, whose rather scuffed left-footed effort under pressure from Djourou was tipped around the post by Manuel. It would have been typical Arsenal to concede from West Brom’s first attack of the game. Five minutes later Miller again beat Gallas to the high-ball but Djourou got back in time to snuff out the danger. We continued to dominate possession but couldn’t fathom any clear-cut chances, whilst Miller’s height and physicality provided cause for concern at the back.

As sure as night follows day, we continued to prosper down the left in the second period. Dare I say it; the combination of Gael/Nasri/Ade may one day rival that of Cuntley/Pires/Thierry. From that channel Ade had two chances in the space of ten minutes. The first was an attempted curler as he tried to Bend It Like Bergkamp into the far corner but failed miserably; the second was when Nasri carved open the Albion defence and Ade tried to pull off the classic Henry finish by slotting the ball past the keeper’s left and into the bottom corner. Unfortunately it went inches wide. While he was wild with the first attempt, he can consider himself a tad unlucky for the second.

In between his chances came the most heart-stopping moment of the match. Miller sprung our offside trap but could only hammer his effort into the legs of Almunia. The rebound fell kindly to Morrison but Djourou had the wherewithal to drop back and clear it off the line. That’s the second time in as many games that the offside trap has almost fatally failed – fortunately we have got away with it on both occasions – and if the Gallas/Djourou partnership is to prosper, it needs to sort out this ploy.

A word about the central midfield pairing. I thought both performed well individually and as a unit, taking turns to shield the back four and support the front two. Denilson has quietly grown stronger and stronger in the last month and while I’d be reluctant to regularly partner him with Cesc, I’d have no qualms whatsoever about resting Cesc and replacing him with Denilson against the league’s lesser lights. He even got Sky’s man of the match, which speaks volumes about his performance. And whilst The Eboue Show contained some of the usual histrionics, he worked hard and was effective in his role of keeping it simple. Shame he didn’t have his shooting boots on as he had numerous wayward efforts in the second-half. Like Denilson I don’t see him being the long-term partner for Cesc, but he can fill in and do a job when required. He has had a complete reversal of Lauren’s development at the Club: the Cameroonian went from RM to DM to RB; Eboue has gone from RB to RM to DM.

Halfway through the second period we had the ball in the net but it was rightly adjudged to be offside. A lucky ricochet on the edge of the area sent the ball into Theo’s path. He spurned the opportunity to shoot and squared for Ade who stroked it home, but was a yard offside. To be fair Theo was offside too but seemed to have gotten away with it. How I wish he had gone for goal himself: 1) to exhibit his finishing; and 2) because he should know that, more often than not, Ade is offside.

Robin came on for the blunt Bendtner in the 70th minute to provide us with more of a cutting edge up-front. Minutes later Kolo came on for Theo and immediately trotted over to the right-wing: a wise decision not to disrupt the central pairings of Gallas/Djourou and Denilson/Eboue deep into the match. A slip by Djourou let Miller in but he was pushed too wide and his cross easily cleared. It was his last act of the game and he can hold his head up high for a performance laden with no little menace.

The longer we went without putting the game to bad, the more apprehensive the home fans became. An equaliser for West Brom and the doom and gloom merchants would have been out in full cry. But despite the away side trying to force the issue, it was us who looked more threatening on the break. With 10 minutes remaining Adebayor got to the byline on the left and floated a cross to the back post but Robin could only head it into Scott Carson’s hands. Then West Brom’s high line saw Ade through but he lived up to his Greedybayor moniker, which led to a few unnecessary boos from the Emirates faithful. The final chance of the afternoon fell to Robin. It was a self-manufactured chance with individual skill that only he could muster. Receiving the ball in the box on his lethal left side, he checked, turned onto his right and poked the ball goalwards with the outside of his left peg. All in one movement. It flew barely inches wide. Not many people in the world would dare attempt that, never mind pulling it off.

Three minutes of injury time passed without incident as we registered our first win of the season. Although not as seminal as last season’s comeback victory over Fulham, at the end of the day, three points is three points. There’s no doubting we should have put West Brom to the sword and grabbed two or three goals, but the sharpness in the final third should come with games. It has to, we can’t have another season of not killing off opponents.

Generally we looked pretty solid at the back – you can’t argue with a clean sheet. While a few individual errors were made that let West Brom in, you have to remember that mistakes are a part of football, as they are of life. You show me a defender who goes through 90 minutes without committing an error that could endanger his team, and I’ll show you a robot. The key to defending is as much recovering from errors as not making any. Sol Campbell for instance made his fair share of errors (usually positional), but either his pace or Kolo’s bailed him out of trouble. Someone like Phil doesn’t have the pace to recover from his errors, so he has to rely more on good positioning and his partner. Like when Gallas made a hash of the offside trap in the first-half, it was Djourou who saved his arse with an off-the-line clearance. Partnerships.

Top Gun for me was the goalscoring debut boy. Whilst the goal was the icing on the cake, the way he seamlessly fit into the side – and especially his understanding with Gael – were massive plusses. They say it takes foreign players six months to adapt to the Premiership, but I think it might be quicker for Samir. I must also give mention to Djourou. I’ve very much warmed to him over the pre-season and in my eyes he has most definitely usurped Big Phil as the no.3 centre-half. In fact, given the way his proactive and aerially-commanding style melds with Willy’s reactive and speed-based style, I would say he is ahead of Kolo as the man in possession of the first-team shirt.

One down, 37 to go. Fingers crossed no injuries during the sodding internationals. Get your rabbit’s feet and four-leaf clovers out for the lads.