Premier League Match Report: Arsenal vs. West Bromwich Albion – Arsenal’s failure to contain Wigan at home could prove the worst (part 1)
Arsenal were looking to take on West Bromwich Albion at the Emirates, following a brilliant midweek display against arch rivals Tottenham. West Brom on the other hand, had a pretty decent mid week game as well. The team went on to beat, Manchester City and
knock them out of the Carling Cup running.
Arsenal were sitting in the second spot, in the League prior to the match where as the newly promoted, West Brom were sitting on the tenth spot.
Alex Song made his return to the side, after being suspended for the midweek match. Emmanuel Eboue was selected to start in the match, while Marouane Chamakh was playing as the lone striker up front.
Arsenal were looking to kick off the match, without a single English player in the squad. This was the first time the team had done so in seven months.
The match kicked off with the home team, controlling the possession and the way things were going about early on in the game. They were looking sharp with the intentions of dominating the proceedings of the night.
In the ninth minute, the first booking of the night took place. Gael Clichy made a dash towards the West Brom goal as he took a pop at goal, but the ball was then parried back into play. It eventually fell into the path of Song, however the player was brought
down by Olsson, who was shown the yellow card for his challenge.
Arsenal could have taken the lead on the fourteenth minute via, their Russian Hitman, Andrei Arshavin. Eboue ran down the right flank and whipped in a brilliant cross, which was met by Arshavin not once but twice. The Russian forward managed to hit the post
with his first time effort and as the ball bounced back off the post, he took another shot which also managed to bounce off the post. That goal would have seen Arsenal take the upper-hand. Arshavin was disappointed for obvious reasons as the player was well
aware that chances like that don't present themselves often in a match.
On the nineteenth minute mark, Sagna whipped in a deadly ball, which was met by the rising head of Chamakh. However the Moroccan forward couldn't get his header on target, for what seems like the first time since his arrival at the Emirates. None the less
Arsenal's intent seemed to be, pretty clear from this early stage in the game.
After that missed header the match seemed to quiet down significantly, with neither one of the teams really creating any clear cut chances. Arsenal were still however dominating possession and looking the more dangerous.
All of that seemed to change of the thirty seventh minute as Brunt played in a delightful through ball, which Odemwingie chased. Koscielny was struggling to keep up with the forward, but Almunia inexplicably tan off his line to bring down the forward and
concede a penalty. He also managed to get booked for his unexplainable actions.
(continued in part 2)
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