Arsenal 2-3 West Brom – 25/09/10 – (Premier League) 27 September, 2010

So not the best result then this weekend was it? I spoke before the game about being confident after the Spurs win but I think an over confidence turned into complacency and we never really bothered turning up. We failed to realise that West Brom would be coming down looking to give us a game and take whatever points they can off us, the team just looked like they thought that if they turned up they would win. Not the case, certainly not against against Premier League side. Those six and four goal thrillers had gone to our head and when on Saturday we faced a team that would actually require a performance to beat, we couldn’t do it.

This weekend Chelsea also lost and Man United drew to Bolton. So you can look at it two ways, 1. That is was a missed opportunity to gain points on our rivals, or 2. That at least we haven’t lost ground on them. Wenger said we don’t look at the results of our rivals, only ourselves and that’s probably the best way. It would’ve been brilliant to win and get within a point of Chelsea but it wasn’t to be and we have to move on.

This can act as a lesson to us. I’ve seen Arsenal many times before simply turn up expecting to win and be caught out, It’s the reason behind us dropping points to so many bottom half sides in recent years; I honestly thought that was out of our system now though. Hopefully this loss to West Brom will teach us that if you want to win the league you have to show that for all 90 minutes in every one of the 38 games. For some oppositions you don’t have to tell the players they need to be at their best, for example next week at Chelsea they won’t need reminding that their best is expected of them. But when you have say West Brom, Wigan or Bolton at home it’s easy not to get worried about facing them and just turn up knowing you’re capable of winning. The fans are guilty of it too, I was never worried about facing West Brom and to be honest I expected us to run out easy winners. Players and fans alike need to be at their very best every game, they need to know that every match is a big test and their 100% commitment is expected for the full game. Yeah we probably could, and have in the past just strolled out, not ever been worried about the opposition and won the game on superior quality alone but those times we have been lucky.

On to the game itself and I thought we started alright; we had plenty of the ball, we weren’t as dangerous with it as we could be but I just put that down to it being the opening stages. Arshavin came close with a ball crossed into him at the back post, I think he hit the woodwork with that I can’t remember, haven’t watched the highlights back. However the visitors began to realise that they could compete in this game and with every Arsenal mistake their confidence grew. They should’ve been 1-0 up going into half time if it wasn’t for another Almunia penalty save, that’s 5 in 6 he’s saved at The Grove. Credit to him for that but he gave the penalty away in the first place for rushing out and tripping up Odemwingie, it wasn’t all his fault as he was left exposed by his defence but still.

We were kind of lucky to go in at half time 0-0 then but 7 minutes into the second half we were 2-0 down, anyone late back to their seat after a half time beer would’ve wondered what the hell happened! At half time we needed a strong talking to, we needed to up our game and push West Brom back but whatever was said was completely forgotten. They went 1-0 up when Odemwingie tapped in a low cross and the second was a horrible mistake my Manuel going to ground to pick up an easy shot but he misjudged it and went in at the near post. Horrible ‘keeping.

We were just about trying to get back into it when we went 3-0 down. Almunia left exposed again had to come rushing out and the cross went into Jerome Thomas who scored into the unguarded net. Some Arsenal fans started leaving and I don’t really blame them, we were awful and at only 73 mintues gone there was still time for this to get embarrassing. I stayed though, I was interested to see what our response was. I don’t know if we got better but we put more pressure on West Brom and Nasri managed to squeeze two goals out of them setting up a tense finish. He was the only one who can take credit out of Saturday’s game and if we had managed to get any points it would’ve been all down to him.

Full time came and it ended 3-2 to West Brom, the Arsenal players left the field dejected and the West Brom players left elated to applause from the away and home fans – they had been the better team and deserved to take three points back to Birmingham. And that was that, it’s sad to lose on any day but to lose to anyone outside the top 6 is a bad day for Arsenal. Hopefully this will be a lesson to the players who didn’t turn up and that’s pretty much all of them, Wenger said it wasn’t all Almunia’s fault, the whole team was disappointing and he’s right. I’ll just run through what I thought of the team on Saturday:

Almunia – Good penalty save but back to his old self with too many mistakes. Record profits but still can’t afford a ‘keeper? 4/10
Sagna – One of his worst in an Arsenal shirt. At fault on a number of occasions, unlike himself. 4/10
Koscielny & Squillaci - First taste of defeat for them and they won’t like it. Could’ve been a lot better, left Almunia exposed too much. 5/10
Clichy - Since his PFA team of the year selection has been on a steady decline. Used to be a massive fan of him but finally accepted Gibbs is our better left back. 3/10
Song – Not good. Top stuff from him last season but hasn’t found his form yet. 4/10
Nasri – Best player on the pitch (again). He’s having a good season but can’t do it all on his own. 7/10
Eboue – Rubbish. He seemed to improve last season but offered nothing on Saturday. 3/10
Arshavin – Spent more time sat on the ground or stood watching the game than running and helping the team – his usual self but worse. 4/10
Diaby – Not great from him either, I can’t really remember much of him which isn’t a good sign but was right to be substituted I know that. 4/10
Chamakh – Struggled a little. Without the players around him he can’t work his stuff. He’s the new kid though so has an excuse. 6/10

So as you can see I’m not that impressed with us this weekend. We need to move on now though as it’s the Champions League tomorrow night. Almunia is ‘injured’ and Fabianski will play in goal, fucking great… Whether Manuel is injured or not who knows but the fact that Fabianski is getting another chance frustrates me. Part of me is hoping he fucks up again so we never see him play in an Arsenal shirt again.

Anyway I’ll look at the game tomorrow. Until then, thanks for reading. Oh and if you’re interested in hearing more from me make sure you add me up on Twitter or Facebook. See ya.