Walcott out with a injury in the warmup, Iwobi comes in, Sanchez switches to the flank and Giroud starts up front.
A yellow card followed by a goal is not a common combination for me, but it's the goal that made them win!
A hard-fought win in the end, as I expected it would be. West Brom are a well-organised side & difficult to break down, but they've got more attacking threats in their team than in previous years. Could have been a banana skin, but at the same time - with 26 shots in the game & the lion's share of possession - we really should have put the game to bed much earlier than we did. As well as Foster played, I feel like some of our shots weren't powerful enough or the players were too predictable when placing the ball, so Foster knew how to shut down the angle. There weren't many saves he made where I felt he pulled a rabbit out of the hat, in as much as I felt we were profligate in front of goal. Credit has to go to Giroud for the winner because he had to hold off McAuley and then use his neck muscles to generate the loop over Foster. A very good goal. Perhaps it's natural after a couple of losses, in addition to the festive period generally, but we did seem lethargic at times and struggled to get into our rhythm. Although it was a shame we didn't score more goals, I was happy with the 3 points in the end. However, with Allardyce taking over Palace, I wouldn't expect our next game to be full of goals either!
Yep, tough win and as you say West Brom have improved. I agree that some of our shooting was a bit tame, and we still seem to lack that killer edge. There was a ball that Perez put across the front of Foster's goal that was just begging for a tap in but nobody got on the end of it. Hopefully that is just a bit of lethargy and lack of sharpness after losing back to back games. Giroud's goal was a massive one, because it got us the 3 points and kept us in the pack at the top, and made sure that our confidence was given a boost. Credit to the players for sticking to it and persevering. They got their reward in the end and hopefully this will be a shot in the arm for us to build on and go on a decent run.
Until Chelsea away at the start of February we should be winning every single game. Anything less than 100% victories will be letdown. Let's see how they do. And actually if we want to win the league, Chelsea away is also must win. And then after that its Hull at home... So really we will need to be winning our next 8 games until Bayern away mid-Feb if we have any title aspirations whatsoever.
This was a hard fought win, lots of shots and patience needed to finally get the goal. I was speaking to an arsenal fan mate of mine who goes to most games and he was cracking me up pointing out a moment right near the end of this game. We were winning one nil and went on a counter, Ozil finds Ramsey in space with a brilliant pass putting Ramsey one on one with the keeper. The keeper runs towards him and Ramsey has loads of time, Ramsey then fakes a shot rather than taking a shot or laying it off to a player who was right next to him, turns around and runs back away from the goal!! Peanut.
Agreed...always felt sorry for that guy who played for city who got booked for a gentle celebrating after scoring against you lot...can't remember his name though Only joking...think that if opposition players and fans have been dishing it out then they should suck it up when the other team score.
That'll be the same player who ****ed Spurs over too and ended up getting Daniel Levy to pay his £100k per week wages whilst he wasn't even playing for you. I'm sure you'll agree that he's a proper ****y one. That said, I don't blame him for 'that' celebration, we were giving him **** all through the game and it was just an explosion of emotion from the bloke. I just think the Stewards should have let the Arsenal fans on the pitch to let him know what we really thought. Fair ?
