The performance in the first half left a lot to be desired with some very sloppy play in midfield leading to far too many chances for West Brom. They had a stonewall penalty denied to them early on when the referee either didn't see it or played an advantage which ultimately didn't lead to a goal. The tackle from Shkodran Mustafi was far too typical from a player who needs to learn how to stay on his feet.
We rode our luck in that first half though and took the lead with Alexander Lacazette headed in after an Alexis Sanchez free kick had been touched on to the bar by the Albion keeper. Alexis came close with two other free kicks, but I was still glad we made it to the break with our lead intact. Whatever was said at half time had an impact because we saw a much more focused team in the second half and West Brom rarely got a look in.
The second goal came from a well taken Lacazette penalty after Aaron Ramsey had been bundled over. Ramsey kept his place ahead of Mesut Ozil who came off the bench late on as he made his way back from injury or continued to haggle over a new contract depending on what you choose to believe. I wonder if Ozil will start tomorrow night away to BATE Borisov considering he was on the bench against West Brom.
The three points gained against West Brom moved us up to seventh in the table and we have a good run of games coming up too while some of the teams above us have to play among themselves. While I still can't see this team genuinely challenging for the title I at least want them to make a fist of trying to finish in the top four. One season without Champions League football is bad enough, but another season would be an absolute disaster when it comes to finances and attracting new players.
As for the trip to Belarus tomorrow night it's going to be a tricky game for us with so many probable changes from the perceived first 11. I would imagine we could see anything up to eight or nine changes from the team that beat West Brom and those players might not find the task too easy. We can expect to see David Ospina, Per Mertesacker, Rob Holding, Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott, Ainsley Mailland-Niles, Alex Iwobi and Olivier Giroud in from the start along with a few others.
The issues will come in the wing back roles as we saw in the League Cup against Doncaster and when we played Koln in our first Europa League game. The only real cover for Sead Kolasinac is Nacho Monreal and he's already in the team in a different position while the only real alternative to Hector Bellerin is Mathieu Debuchey. I would doubt very much if Monreal, Kolasinac or Bellerin will play and not only is Debuchey not ready to return, but it's hard to believe he's still an Arsenal player.
We seem set on our new formation, but the manager should have addressed the issue of back up for his wing backs in the summer if he intended sticking with it. Of course there were other areas of the team and squad which needed attention and most of them were ignored too. The arrivals of Lacazette and Kolasinac were very welcome though and I'm highly impressed by both of them so far.
BATE will make things very tough for us and they have proven to be a hard team to beat on their own patch in European competitions. I would be more than happy with a point as the three points at home to Koln put us in a strong position in the group with BATE drawing away to Red Star Belgrade in their first game. Three home wins and a little more besides should see us out of our group and maybe we might just take the competition a little more seriously then.
The most important game for us at the moment is the home game in the Premier League against Brighton on Sunday. It's another must win game and the manager has to make sure he has a team that can go out and win that game. Brighton haven't had a bad start to life in the top flight, but we need to
not only beat them, but beat them well. That might mean sacrificing the trip to BATE, but as I said I would be happy enough with a point.
That's it for today.
See you tomorrow.
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