WBA v Arsenal: The ups and downs of the Larger Sam

by Bulldog Drummond

Three teams have let in three or more goals in four consecutive home fixtures. West Brom are on the edge of this, and of course it will be very much to Arsenal’s benefit if that can be achieved.

Date	Game	Res	Score	Competition
06 Dec 2020	West Bromwich Albion v Crystal Palace	L	1-5	Premier League
20 Dec 2020	West Bromwich Albion v Aston Villa	L	0-3	Premier League
29 Dec 2020	West Bromwich Albion v Leeds United	L	0-5	Premier League

As for Arsenal, a win won’t take us that far up the table, but it will help

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
10	West Ham United	16	6	5	5	23	21	2	23
11	Leeds United	16	7	2	7	30	30	0	23
12	Wolverhampton Wanderers	16	6	3	7	15	21	-6	21
13	Arsenal	16	6	2	8	16	19	-3	20

although of course it depends on what the other teams do. But the only way out of the mire is a step by step approach and that is what we are looking for.

We are of course not going to catch Leeds in terms of goal scoring (15 would be nice but seems unlikely with the Larger Sam in charge of WBA); they have scored twice as many goals as we have but a 3-0 win for us and a 1-0 defeat for Leeds will take us above them – and the same applies to the other two teams above us.

Meanwhile, the ex-England manager with a penchant for ‘inappropriate behaviour’ (although I might be tempted to indulge in inappropriate behaviour to lay my hands on a million quid, so I can’t complain), can repeat the achievement of the Mark Hughes by winning a Premier League match as a manager against Arsenal with four different clubs.

“But what of this Larger Sam?” I hear you cry. What has he been a-doing of in his career? Basically, managing the likes of Limerick, Preston, Blackpool, Notts County, Notlob, Newcastle, Blackburn, West Ham, Sunderland, England, Crystal Palace, Everton and Western Bromwich. You might have thought that people would have realised by now, but no, they keep giving him a job.

Still he is a record breaker, what with being the only football manager with three corruption charges against him – first the 2006 Panorama investigation, second when Ravel Morrison said he had come under considerable pressure from ever larger Sam to sign up with football agent Mark Curtis, who represented Allardyce and some West Ham players, and as England manager offering to give advice on how to get around those pesky FA rules on player third party ownership.

But well, these people will keep employing him, and these allegations keep being made, but of course we have no evidence whatsoever that the larger Sam has ever done anything wrong. Not a thing. Not a sausage. Not even a large sausage.

But the real problem for the larger Sam is that he actually isn’t very good as a manager.

Team	From	To	Games	Win %
Preston North End (caretaker)	30 September 1992	30 November 1992	12	25.0
Blackpool	19 July 1994	29 May 1996	102	43.1
Notts County	16 January 1997	14 October 1999	145	38.6
Bolton Wanderers	19 October 1999	29 April 2007	371	41.2
Newcastle United	15 May 2007	9 January 2008	24	33.3
Blackburn Rovers	17 December 2008	13 December 2010	90	35.6
West Ham United	1 June 2011	24 May 2015	181	37.6
Sunderland	9 October 2015	22 July 2016	31	29.0
England	22 July 2016	27 September 2016	1	100.0
Crystal Palace	23 December 2016	23 May 2017	24	37.5
Everton	30 November 2017	16 May 2018	26	38.5
West Bromwich Albion	16 December 2020	Present	3	0.0
Total			1,037	39.2

We might perchance compare him with Arsenal’s managers over the same era

Manager	From	To	Games	Win %
George Graham	14 May 1986	21 February 1995	460	48.91
Stewart Houston	21 February 1995	15 June 1995	19	36.84
Bruce Rioch	15 June 1995	12 August 1996	47	46.81
Stewart Houston	12 August 1996	13 September 1996	6	33.33
Pat Rice	13 September 1996	30 September 1996	4	75.00
Arsene Wenger	1 October 1996	13 May 2018	1,235	57.25
Unai Emery	23 May 2018	29 November 2019	78	55.13
Freddie Ljungberg	29 November 2019	21 December 2019	6	16.67
Mikel Arteta	22 December 2019	Present	52	51.92

We shall see.

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