By Dan Ferguson
Arsenal play West Brom at the Emirates on Boxing Day.
Traditionally, this game was one of the most enjoyable in the season. This is probably down to the escaping the extended family for a few hours, whilst releasing some stress. That is the extent of my psychoanalysis for this morning.
On a more miserable note, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if we see more empty seats than the sixth game of the Champions League when Arsenal have been knocked out. Things have changed.
The cross-section of fans has changed. There are still a substantial amount of fans who look forward to this date/fixture, but by and large, there are fans who can afford not to go and not to sell on their tickets. That is a shame. London has a lot to answer for. Meh! (Grinch).
Nevertheless, there is a game to play and as many people have observed, Arsenal have a run of six games which should all be winnable.
Now anyone who follows Arsenal with any passion knows that earmarking winnable games is just plain daft. I hate to sound like a voice of sense, but one game at a time and all that.
West Brom is a typical Pulis side. They will lose more than they win, but they will survive and turn out a few surprises per season. According to my stat man Alan, their obvious threats are Phillips and Rondon who both have plenty of quality. If they are stopped, not much happens.
WBA have scored around a goal a game, and more headed goals than any other team. They will obviously be looking for free kicks in and around the box, and with significantly less possession, they will do this primarily with long balls through the channels or in the air, looking for a daft centre back to clump Rondon etc etc.
Arsenal are more than capable of scoring two and improving their possession percentage. Furthermore, they have had a rest and players are coming back from injury. Additionally, it is a mark of respect to each other that they cancelled their traditional Christmas party, and thus deprived The Daily Mail of their usual football tits. So the players at least appear to show desire in the right places after some pretty awful second half performances against City and Everton.
I don’t think Ramsey will be risked yet, and going into his injury was really struggling with form. I will be interested to see what happens with the midfield axis, as Coq and Xhaka just don’t work well together. I hope this changes and they gel, but they seem to read the game without reading each other.
Gaps everywhere. Whoever gets picked, Arsenal have enough to win this game and should return to some kind of form. Next Arsenal face Palace, who have appointed Allardyce.
A preview of that game next week, but I will leave you with this question: Can anyone find out how many clubs in the last 5 seasons have sacked their manager within a week of playing against Arsenal? It feels like dozens to me.
Merry Christmas all.