Kevin Whitcher
November has often proved a troublesome month for Arsenal under Arsene Wenger. And so it seems to be the case in 2015. A bad defeat in Munich, a poor showing in the North London derby and now this. A game in the West Midlands which Arsenal should have won, but conspired to lose.
Things started well enough, a well taken free kick from Ozil found Giroud who converted with his header. All well and good, although by this time, Coquelin had been replaced by Mikel Arteta after an early injury. Arteta committed the foul that led to West Brom’s equalizer, and he habitually gives away free kicks with his style of challenge in dangerous areas.
Arsenal’s defensive record, at least in the Premier League so far this season, has been pretty good. However, it was not a good day yesterday. Poor marking at the back post by, well, Arteta allowed Morrison to level the scores from the set piece and Arsenal’s early good work was undone. Kieran Gibbs had spurned a pretty decent chance to make it 2-0 not long before. The decision to play him instead of Joel Campbell was presumably based on his contribution against Spurs a fortnight earlier, but it didn’t really work out, not that Campbell made much of a case for himself later on.
It got worse. Returning from injury, Hector Bellerin had a poor game and at times, his flank was targeted by the opposition. He was unable to do anything about the cross that hit the hapless Arteta and lead to an own goal. It was to be the final goal of the game. To complete the ignominy of his contribution, the club captain was withdrawn with injury ten minutes into the second half.
The final 45 minutes saw West Brom hit the bar, but Arsenal enjoy more excellent opportunities. Enough, certainly to have won. Ozil was unlucky to hit the post, whilst substitute Joel Campbell’s miss was unforgivable. The penalty awarded for Alexis being hauled back is the type rarely given, but the visitors were grateful for it. West Brom tried to psyche out the taker Santi Cazorla, but he did not seem fazed by their efforts. Even so, he slipped up as he struck the ball in a fashion reminiscent of John Terry in Moscow. It sailed over the bar and kind of summed up Arsenal’s day.
One of those days? West Brom tried hard to contain the visitors, but the quality of the chances that the Gunners created indicated that, although Tony Pulis’ side worked hard, ultimately, they should have lost this game. As it was, the mixture of poor Arsenal defending and wasted opportunities at the other end sacrificed the points. It’s goals that count. Can one blame injuries or fatigue for missing chances as they did? I’m unconvinced. On another day, Arsenal would have scored four and no-one would be concerned.
I think it is a bit early to draw any conclusions from this game except that the club do not really have quality back up for Francis Coquelin. That was a gamble Arsene Wenger took last summer when he decided Southampton’s asking price for Morgan Schneiderlin was too high. So they were reliant on Mikel Arteta to do a job at the Hawthorns and it proved costly. Bad luck? Maybe on the day, but not having better back up for Coquelin (or a player of enough quality to make Coquelin himself the reserve choice) has nothing to do with ill fortune. But hey, we have £70 million in the transfer kitty, so what’s not to like?
Norwich away next weekend gives the team the opportunity to demonstrate that West Brom was a blip. Liverpool’s 4-1 win at the Etihad Stadium provided a let off for Arsenal, although now Leicester and Man Utd are the top two. It does seem to be a league there for the taking. One just wonders if the mix of injuries, lack of squad depth in particular departments and a policy of playing for plaudits rather than results might end up costing Arsene Wenger the opportunity of a first Premier League title in 12 years. We’ll have a better idea after the visit to Norwich next weekend, but Arsenal don’t want to be dropping too many points against the also-rans.
I am now on Twitter@KevinWhitcher01.
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