Wilshere’s first half display down to his left position, he has had some very good games in that position this season. In my opinion he lacks simplisticity. Or at least knowing when to be simplistic and when to try and make something happen. It is this reason why I enjoy watching Tomas Rosicky so much. As with Ramsey and other players like Hleb before him, this issue is a temporary issue rather than a longer term problem. Match fitness and playing games will sort this out. In that first half especially, Wilshere would try and dribble past one too many players, get tackled and stay down holding his ankle. There are times when Wilshere’s burst past a couple players and then pass makes chances out of nothing but often the early pass to one of the floating Özil, Ramsey, Giroud etc is the better option. Credit to Wilshere

Arsenal could have lost at the Hawthorns, we could equally have won. The margins were incredibly small against a very good side. Steve Clarke has built a hard working unit who have a very fast and skilful front line. They are a team who will give many a game this season. The result at Old Trafford last weekend puts our result into a tad more perspective.

Arsenal were away from home after a high intensity Champions League week so a draw shouldn’t be something to be too upset about.

I thought we had missed Theo Walcott more than ever in this fixture. Oliver Giroud was often isolated, often having to drop off the front to link up with the creative midfield that we had on the pitch. It is usually the speedy wide forward who runs diagonally to join him. Even an out of sorts Walcott would have stretched out the pitch more and given our midfield more room to play in. I am sure bwin would have had us down as favourites had Theo played.

I wouldn’t put Wilshere’s first half display down to his wide left position, he has had some very good games in that position this season. In my opinion he lacks simplicity. Or at least knowing when to be simplistic and when to try and make something happen. It is this reason why I enjoy watching Tomas Rosicky so much. As with Ramsey and other players like Hleb before him, this issue is a temporary issue rather than a longer term problem. Match fitness and playing games will sort this out. In that first half especially, Wilshere would try and dribble past one too many players, get tackled and stay down holding his ankle. There are times when Wilshere’s burst past a couple players and then pass makes chances out of nothing but often the early pass to one of the floating Özil, Ramsey, Giroud etc is the better option. Credit to Wilshere for his second half improvement. There were a few nerves in the first period because he had picked up a booking for a reckless lunge, landing on a players ankle. He was also continuously fouled by West Brom players. The risk of him lashing out had the score remained was certainly a possibility.

West Brom scored their goal at the perfect time for them. Just before half time, Jacob’s stooping header bounced higher than Szczesny’s dive. As I said, the game could have gone any direction before that goal. Gibbs lashed over after a good cross-field through pass from Özil. Wilshere and Ramsey had good chances.

But it was the home team that really could have put the game to bed early in the second half. Clearly buoyed by their lead, they had turned the screw but failed to convert a couple of very presentable chances. Nicolas Anelka who used to love the ol goal against Arsenal kindly left his shooting boots at home.

But credit to Arsenal who stuck at it, never gave up and found an equaliser. Fantastic chasing, hassling and persistence from Özil to win the ball deep in our half, I didn’t think he had that in him. And it was he who got back on the ball, swerving past a West Brom player, his threaded pass from the right was typical Özil. Giroud evaded his man found Rosicky who touched it back to Wilshere on the edge of the box, his low drive took a wicked deflection off the shin of Jonas Olsson and into the West Brom net past the impressive Myhill in goal.

I thought we would go on and win the game after that such has been the character of the squad of late. Giroud could have done so on two occasions, one where he snatched at a Özil scoop and one where he skipped past the keeper after a top class Wilshere through pass. Giroud’s two touches, one to control and the second to nip past Myhill were excellent but his shot was blocked by the keeper who had recovered very well. There wasn’t a great deal more Giroud could have done for that chance. It was more his snatched effort that was more disappointing I felt.

Still I thought that Giroud had a good game overall with limited support, he also played his part in our equaliser so there is no need to be too critical. Even the worlds best strikers do not convert every chance in every game.

Luckily Ramsey’s injury that forced him off in the second half isn’t too serious, even better if it rules him out of the Welsh games coming up but that is probably wishful thinking. Had Ramsey not taken a knock then maybe Arsene would have gone for the win more by replacing one of Flamini or Arteta instead which would have made us stronger going forward.

Top of the table before these International matches isn’t a bad place to be even if it is not as far ahead as we would have liked. The good news is that this break allows for Santi Cazorla to come back into the squad, hopefully it will allow for Tomas Rosicky to get some more match fitness under his belt without the customary international break injury. Walcott and Podolski should also be closer to a first team come back. Any of those attacking options in our squad and we may have won the game on Sunday. I remind you again that 3 out of 4 of our highest scores and goal creators from last season have missed a fair amount of games this season and will be a huge boost to our squad.

We only picked up the draw today, perhaps if we had spent as wisely as our neighbours then we would have all three points under our belts. Hahahaha!

Still top of the league. Just.