Arsenal hosted West Brom today at the Emirates Stadium, and left it late before sealing all three points.
Arsene Wenger decided to change things up following the recent successive losses to Everton and Manchester City, with Alexis Sanchez returning to his place on the wing and Olivier Giroud coming in up front.
The Frenchman was given his first start of the season, and thank god for that, as he was the man to break the deadlock.
We started the game in dominant fashion with our side seeing much of the ball, and that didn’t change as the game went on. West Brom were doing well enough to keep us pegged back, but were not committing numbers forward when on the ball.
Claudio Yacob was crucial in blocking a number of key passes and runs into the box, but luckily he couldn’t deny us for the full match-up.
It was our old trusted pairing of last season, as Mesut Ozil found Olivier Giroud for the winner.
https://twitter.com/TerjeAFC/status/813426362392449024?lang=en
Now I’d be lying if I claimed that the French striker was amazing today, but he did what he does best, just as Diego Costa does for Chelsea, scoring that crucial goal despite his performance during the game.
We needed this win even more-so given our recent losses, and it must be relieving to be back on track.
Will Giroud get his chance to continue in the first-team thanks to his winner? Or does his performance warrant his return to the sidelines?
Pat J
The amount of missed chances.. We made Foster look like Neuer!
Did our defense actually look good tonight or was West Brom just sh*te? First clean sheet in like 12 matches, can’t believe.
Now we are only.. 9 points behind top. But top 4 should be in our pocket.
Our defense was on alert even though WB was parking the bus,
Thank you Giroud, now go back to the bench.
Bellerin was inserting some good drive into our game, he looked powerful when moving forward with the ball and was making their players worried. He took on some opposites too, and I thought it rubbed off on some of our players.
We didn’t make Foster look like Neuer. Foster made himself look like Neuer and credit to him. And while I’m at it, credit to Arsenal. They stuck with it and showed some grit today. Something that was woefully lacking last week.
We played well but parking the bus is never easy to overcome. I’m ecstatic with the much needed win, just curious why we didn’t send more crosses to Giroud in the first place lol COYG
If we had of, then what’s to say WBA wouldn’t have read Ozil’sGiroud’s intentions better on that late game saver. There are two sides of most coins.
Sure, I’m just saying Giroud’s strength is in the air and we didn’t put many crosses in today. Instead we tried to pass through them which is difficult against any Pulis team playing 10 back. Just thought we could’ve sent more crosses earlier in the game to Giroud that’s all. Hope we can get some momentum going now!
After reading through these comments I am left astonished.
A great win after a difficult period, do you not remember your Chelsea gold standard played almost the exact same game as us when they played WBA. Difficult, hard to break down, but got the essential 3 points.
Let’s move on and gain some confidence as we have some very beatable games coming up, gain some momentum and let’s concentrate on ourselves.
Also, some of you talk about an inferiority complex, or a losing mentality, the only side I truly see that constantly perpetuated by is our fans.
Grow up, support your team, for fux sake you children.
Comments from the previous article, apologies to (1) of the previous posters.
West Brom was disgraceful, wasting time since 12th minute, playing with 11 men behind the ball, this kind of “tactics” should be punished by yellow cards, or adding real stoppage time, Referee just added 1 min an 4 mins, total joke. This shouldnt be called a football team.
Despite the win, it was not a confident performance of a title challenger at all. I think Wenger has lost his confidence, hunger and seriousness in chasing the title this season.
Why did he put Giroud back as the target man this time? Was he afraid that the Sanchez would not be able to perform in the front, so he needed to revert to the last season’s tactic? Or did he want Giroud to sign a new contract, and ease up the competition between Giroud and Sanchez? Luckily Giroud scored, otherwise we will not be able to chase the league leader.
I think:
– Wenger : Lost his energy and confidence to chase the title in this season. The lack of confidence is reflected on his players.
– Giroud : He is better as a super sub.
– Ozil : Despite the assist, he was almost invisible in the match. Has been a passenger for a very long time and we need to sell him out before the next season starts.
– Sanchez : Wasteful at the side. He is better in the central position as a playmaker.
– Iwobi : Still very young and needs to get more experience.
– Xhaka : Wasteful shots. Need time to blend in.
– Coquelin : One of the best players in this match.
– The defenders and the keeper : Did not have any real threats.
what a bad overall comment
Thank you Lads for not making me break my brand new laptop! We should have won this comfortably but with our confidence being low we made it difficult for ourselves onces again, the 3 points are the only thing that matter COYG
3 points in the bag.
Hip Hip … Hooray! ???
Now who’s up for helping me scrape some left over Turkey… From my pants? ??
West Brom did not come to play at all. They decided to pack the bus.
Sanchez tried his best to score. He hit the woodwork. Foster made some great saves. Kudos to him.
Glad Giroud scored from Ozil assist. I don’t know what Ramsey did there. That should killed the game but glad we got the three points. I was worried in the last ten minutes
Perez put in some good crosses. I want to see him start some epl games. He only started against Southampton so far this season in the league.
Nothing’s really changed this week………… Citeh and pool could go on to win as well
.
Stable table
The team that ended the game is the team I want to see start the next game. Unless Mustafi is back to replace Gabriel.
That was a good ball by Ozil but what an execution from Giroud. He holds off his marker, great strength, and with not too much pace on the ball he had to direct it perfectly away from the keeper. Lovely finish by the big man.
We finally kept a clean sheet!
We Won!
Giroud scored in his first EPL start of the season!
Ozil Assist!
#Happy_Boxing_Day
#yaGonnerYA!
Jamericam i think you understand the game better than most of the fans here. to get the most out of our team this is my line up
Ozil lw perize rw sanchez number ten role giroud center forward
I just think that we can achieve an effective front 3 with either Iwobi-Alexis-Lucas or Alexis-Giroud-Lucas.
I still think Alexis is better up front and Giroud is better as a Super Sub
Anyway so happy we pulled out a win.
Look the result was most important today. But Giroud should not start.
Why do so many want Giroud to start?? You really think he is better than Sanchez?
The mind boggles!!!
I am super happy with the result, but this game didn’t make Giroud a starter IMO.
we escaped today, Giroud was Giroud n our attack was sluggish.
Wenger stick to Alexis upfront n get Giroud in 2nd half.
Perez should also start in LW ahead of Iwobi.
n I’m not buying the Walcott ‘calf problem’ excuse for leaving him out; it’s the interview he gave.
nice to see Gibbs start in LB
Giroud must start when teams park the bus.
you must mean come in cos not only is it difficult to know if a side is gonna park the bus b4 d game starts Giroud also thrives when defenders are fatigued in the last 20mins.
Arsenal are not a crissicrosser team that just keep crossing like a midtable side.
we are best with the ball on the ground, the crossing game is planB.
Giroud is at best a planB.
planB is used when planA isn’t working.
we now need to go on a winning run of about 10games. cos it’s not just about us winning it’s about Chelsea dropping points n it won’t be easy to close a 9point-gap
Against these teams it’s good to start Giroud. They expect us to break them down the same way but with a big player like him upfront it gives them something else to think about.
For the next couple games against Palace and Bournmouth. I want to see these players make up the front 6,
————————Giroud———————–
Iwobi——Sanchez———Ozill———–Perez
———————–Coquelin———————
Sanchez will help recover ball in midfield. Sometimes you have to hate Ozil’s attitude though, he gives the ball away and stops playing. There was one incident where he was almost through on goal inside WBA penalty box (2nd half) and after losing it he stops playing, but there is scramble going on behind him.
I’m surprised at the number of posters who want to see Giroud back in the starting line up. I’m loving what he brings to a Plan B but don’t want him anywhere near the starting line up when everyone is healthy. For me, Sanchez, Lucas and soon Welbeck are all better choices to start up front.
All three of them should be in starting 11.
Only 29 posts after a must needed win. 30 counting this one.
Yet, after the last 2 losses, there were close to 100 in every topic after.
Just goes to show how much some so called fans/ supporters would rather see us lose.
Rather sad, once you think about…
Good win lads. Thanks
So here is the difference
Beating West Brom one-nil at home is the least one can expect of a top four team
Beating or tying City away and beating Everton away is what is expected of a team gunning for the top spot.
So excuse us for having higher ambitions then you NY_Gunner, you were always happy with top four, you actually are the ideal fan for the Stan -Ivan -Arsene Troika. Fortunately most fans aren’t.
Most of us are Arsenal fans not Arsene fans, and we want to win the PL again in our lifetime.
@jimbeam
Looks like you got higher expectations mixed up with higher ambitions dude…And if you had been a real FC fan as you say, then you would know that AFC under AW has already won the EPL. unless you’re like you sound, born yesterday…
Crusial win, I am so happy I had lost hope, tnk God we later won
I think Giroud needs to start some games, I observe we Dominate game with Giroud up front, Giroud is needed in our team, Sanchez can still deliver from d wings.
missed this game but since it was a Pulis side I can already imagine how the entire thing played out. Credit to our players for sticking with it for 90 minutes and finding a way. It’s all about just getting that one goal against them. Happy for Giroud, and the assist from Ozil was great.
Very positive. We kept WBA down to almost no chances at all. Ok, we could/should have scored more, but I think it was very good not to get get physically bullied by a Pulis team, which has happened so many times. This time our midfield had more steel, and Giroud helped out with physical presence (also defensively). So something was definitely right.
watford, stoke, Sunderland, west brom et al….. not rocket science to know who parks the bus…..