Was West Brom 1 Point Gained or 2 Points Dropped?

As the boring International break begins (does anyone actually care about International football anymore?) and the Premier League is one hold for a couple of weeks, Arsenal sit at the top of the table, pipping Liverpool to top spot after the away draw at West Brom.

But was that a point gained or two points dropped?

On the face of it, it was a decent result. West Brom were full of confidence after beating Manchester United at Old Trafford and gave us a very tough game. They could have even been two goals up as well in the second half, if Nicolas Anelka managed to take one of the two excellent chances he had.

But as it turned out, we dug in, and Jack Wilshere scored a valuable goal to equalise and give us a point at The Hawthorns.

Now though, a few Arsenal fans are questioning Arsene Wenger and his team selection that day.

The main points people have been “unhappy” with were:

  • That Arsene started with Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini meaning we had two holding midfielders.
  • Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere had to therefore play unfamiliar roles (in wide positions) which for about an hour, meant they had no real influence in the match.
  • Because of our midfield selection, Olivier Giroud was far too isolated and couldn’t bring other players into the game.

Personally, I thought West Brom where always going to give us a hard game and it would be unreasonable (but not impossible) for Arsenal to keep up their winning streak going into 10 games. Steve Clarke is a decent manager and knows full well that we have won 10 games on the bounce so changed his tactics accordingly.

Is it reasonable to think that Arsene Wenger should be clever enough to get through this and find another way to win?

I just think that if this was the Arsenal of old, we would have lost that game 2-0. Of course we struggled at times with West Brom but we never gave up and for me, it was a valuable point.

But what do you think?

 

1 thought on “Was West Brom 1 Point Gained or 2 Points Dropped?

  1. I think any result away from home that ends in points are ones earned, some games you look at and think it will be easier than others. However Wba are a tough nut to crack and they were buoyed by the utd result. What’s important though is that those teams around us struggled. I saw Chelsea match and it was a harsh score line Liverpool were dominant and spurs were below par. We didn’t play well and credit to Clarke for his part in that but the accommadatiing of wilshere arteta Ramsey and flamini didn’t give balance to team along with no natural wide players we struggled to get behind them and in the end a point when not playing well has to be a bonus.

     

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