Arsenal v WBA – the teams, players with very very long names, and some dangerous driving

By Bulldog Drummond.

Part one of the preview was published yesterday under the exciting and vibrant headline “They won’t park the bus, they’ll bring the whole bus station.”

Now just before I jump into the automobile and spend a couple of hours telling people who had planned to spend three days at the in-laws but felt they couldn’t stand it any more and got all the kids into the car and are getting away from the neo-fascist grandfather who is still using vocabulary that was made illegal in 1966 as soon as they can on the grounds that one of the little ones is not feeling well, that they only need one lane to drive in, and zigzagging left and right because the co-pilot thinks that the next lane is moving faster, is not a clever idea, a few more bits of statistical whatnot to round it up, here’s the rest of the preview.

Arsenal have only lost to WBA three times in 20 PL games and have lost just one of the last 11 games against West Brom.  Arsenal have scored in every single one of those games.

Here’s some of the results taken from a series in which we have won 69 and lost only 37, and most of those defeats came in the Ancient Times.

Date Match Res Score Competition
05 May 1984 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal W 1-3 League Division One
15 Dec 1984 Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion W 4-0 League Division One
11 May 1985 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal D 2-2 League Division One
23 Nov 1985 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal D 0-0 League Division One
26 Apr 1986 Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion D 2-2 League Division One
27 Aug 2002 Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion W 5-2 Premier League
26 Dec 2002 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal W 1-2 Premier League
16 Dec 2003 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal W 0-2 League Cup
20 Nov 2004 Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion D 1-1 Premier League
02 May 2005 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal W 0-2 Premier League
15 Oct 2005 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal L 2-1 Premier League
15 Apr 2006 Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion W 3-1 Premier League
24 Oct 2006 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal W 0-2 League Cup
16 Aug 2008 Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion W 1-0 Premier League
03 Mar 2009 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal W 1-3 Premier League
22 Sep 2009 Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion W 2-0 League Cup
25 Sep 2010 Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion L 2-3 Premier League
19 Mar 2011 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal D 2-2 Premier League
05 Nov 2011 Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion W 3-0 Premier League
13 May 2012 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal W 2-3 Premier League
08 Dec 2012 Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion W 2-0 Premier League
06 Apr 2013 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal W 1-2 Premier League
25 Sep 2013 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal W 1-1 League Cup
06 Oct 2013 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal D 1-1 Premier League
04 May 2014 Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion W 1-0 Premier League
29 Nov 2014 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal W 0-1 Premier League
24 May 2015 Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion W 4-1 Premier League
21 Nov 2015 West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal L 2-1 Premier League
21 Apr 2016 Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion W 2-0 Premier League

That’s one defeat in the last 12 which is not bad.   And one other factoid, the last time the teams met on 26 December WBA took the lead and then threw it away for Arsenal to win 2-1.

Now as you will know we have just had a couple of duff results.  But we haven’t lost three games in the same month since January 2012.

Game Date Against Venue Result Pos
20 02.01.2012 Fulham away L 1-2 5
21 15.01.2012 Swansea City away L 2-3 5
22 22.01.2012 Manchester United home L 1-2 5

Of course such a set of results caused howls of derision and quite a few heart attacks among the aaa who refused to read Untold’s unique “How to keep your blood pressure under control when hating Arsene Wenger no matter what” advisory pamphlet.

But it is interesting to see what came next after those three defeats.

Game Date Against Venue Result Pos
23 01.02.2012 Bolton Wanderers away D 0-0 7
24 04.02.2012 Blackburn Rovers home W 7-1 5
25 11.02.2012 Sunderland away W 2-1 4
26 26.02.2012 Tottenham Hotspur home W 5-2 4
27 03.03.2012 Liverpool away W 2-1 4
28 12.03.2012 Newcastle United home W 2-1 4
29 21.03.2012 Everton away W 1-0 3
30 24.03.2012 Aston Villa home W 3-0 3

Just goes to show – it is rather hard to predict the next result on the basis of the last result – but please never tell the aaa this, as it will spoil their whole raison d’être.

Anyway, we are unbeaten in the last seven Premier League home matches.  That’s not bad.

As for WBA they have lost two of their last three league matches.   They have also conceded at least one goal in every one of their last 14 Premier League games except one (when they beat Burnley).

Here’s a possible line up.

Cech

Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal

Coquelin  Xhaka

Walcott Ozil  Iwobi

Alexis

Making sandcastles and throwing stones on the beach: Ospina, Gibbs, Holding, Elneny, Ramsey, Pérez, Giroud.  Again I am still leaving Jenkinson out, simply because I have no information on how he is doing.  For Ramsey it might be a bit too soon for this sort of game in which case Le Jeff might get a place.

Finally here’s a list of the top Premier League goal scorers of the moment complete with full names and accents courtesy of Supersport.com

Position Full name even if very long Club Goals
1 Diego Da Silva Costa Chelsea Soviet 13
2 Alexis Alejandro Sánchez Sánchez Arsenal 12
3 Zlatan Ibrahimović Manchester United 11
4 Sergio Leonel Agüero del Castillo Manchester Airport 10
5 Romelu Lukaku Menama Everton 9
6 Christian Benteke Liolo Fat Sam’s Palace 8
7 Eden Hazard Chelsea Soviet 8
8 Jermain Defoe Sunderland 8
9 Sadio Mané Liverpool! 8
10 Theo Walcott Arsenal 8
11 Harry Kane Tiny Totts 7
12 José Salomón Rondón Giménez West Bromwich 7

Not bad – two in the top ten.  The only other team to achieve that are the Soviets.

Have a good Boxing Day, and drive safe (if driving that is).

And from the History Society

August / September 1936: 20 different players used in the first seven league games

Ralph Birkett: part of the South West club that Chapman built within Arsenal

Arsenal players 1934/5 and 1935/36 the fundamental problem with the team

Arsenal in the summer 1936: from winning the Cup to an assassination attempt on the king

 

47 Replies to “Arsenal v WBA – the teams, players with very very long names, and some dangerous driving”

  1. I think Arsenal’s game result this afternoon against WBA at the Ems has already been settled in advance to the favour of Arsenal winning the match by 4 goals to nil with Sanchez and Ozil on the score sheet.

    I’ve already proposed my own starts & bench for this match to Le Prof twice to consider them in my 2 previous comment postings. So no need I repeat them again. But hopefully, Le Prof would have considered that my starts & bench for a possible use in this game or at least mostly used in the match.

    Of a very equal importance to me as this our home game against WBA is to me is also the Chelsea home match against the visiting Bournemouth team to the Bridge. In this match, I want to see Jack Wilshere take the responsibility of Bournemouth victory in the match upon himself by scoring goals or gives some assists to score goals that will see Bournemouth defeat Chelsea in the match if he truly loves Arsenal and wouldn’t like to go to any other Premier League club on a permanent deal other than for a loan deal as he has claimed.

    Jack Wilshere should see to Chelsea’s 11 PL winning run comes to a standstill this afternoon at the Bridge with a crushing home defeat to them to make sure Chelsea’s attempt to equalled Arsenal’s 13 & 14 a season and all time winning run in the PL is not further threatened than it has been put under threat by Chelsea. And by so doing, Arsenal will also regain some points they’ve lost to Chelsea in the table.

  2. If all goes well (internet) I will publish my usual match report as soon as the match ends

  3. Sometimes that grandfather who was bought up in a world that you obviously can’t comprehend could probably teach you something about tolerance and rough justice .Things that sadly the world is missing.

  4. When you see Lolo Koscielny at their 30 yards with the ball in his feet than you know what sort of a tactical vehicle our opponents have brought to the game.

  5. Who the eff is this commentator….

    Says time wasting by West Bromwich is all part of the game….Good tactic…!!!!!!

    Somebody tell that jerk….It’s not.

  6. Alexis almost broke the bus with a decent effort after he turned the jet heels on. Finally a shot on target.

  7. Whoz ready to place a bet….

    Foster will get a yellow for time wasting after 80mins….

  8. Giroud should calm down. He is on a yellow card and he still feels a need to chat with the ref.

    Anyway, rather boring first half with one team trying to play football but can’t create a decent goal-chance while the other team playing…I don’t know how they call this sport Tony Pulis has been coaching but I don’t see too many resemblances with football.

  9. We are trying the left flank but space on the right being ignored with Bellerin drifting in. Is this what Theo gives us. It seems Iwobi still wants to be on the left. So we and up standing on each others toes. Talk of playing in a postage stamp. Giroud may have a point but should know better than to give the ref a chance to book him for Gallic petulance.

  10. This is the sort of game the opponents get a set piece at the other end and scores from it. We have definitely upped the tempo but just missing one thing, luck. Ref also looking for any slightest opportunity to stop our attacks.

  11. If livescore is not lying, we have had 14 shots (7 on target, 7 off target) while WBA have had just one shot and 21% of possession.

  12. Hahahahahahahaha
    Hahahahahahahaha
    Hahahahahahahaha
    Hahahahahahahaha
    Hahahahahahahaha

    Now he gets yellow…After 80mins….

  13. Gieeerrooooooo…. Yyyyyueeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh

    Ccooommmee ooooooonnnnn
    Yyyeeeeaaahhhhh

    Eeffff ooffff Pulis

  14. OLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!

    Waste some time now, Ben. Please!

  15. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

    Come on Gunners.

    Effed them big time..
    Hahahahahahahaha

  16. This kind of football should be outlawed; we only managed to watch some football in the last 6 minutes of the match.

  17. @AI

    If the referee had done anything to cut the time-wasting crap from the beginning, we wouldn’t have seen that sort of pathetic football.

    Fortunately, our next opponents have a manager that is a personification of Total Football so we won’t have to dismantle another bus.

  18. Tongue in cheekc Josif, very much tongue in cheeck 🙂

    Oh, the match report is on line. I rather like the title…

  19. Good result, avoided a potential pgmol-assisted banana skin..

    OT
    Does anyone know why the odious one invited old bacon face to training at the old toilet? Trying to remind refs that they should be kind to utd? Wouldn’t surprise me if they got a few gifts today in their win over Sunderland

  20. We kept going and got our just reward so well done to the team.
    Pulis should be brought before the FA for bringing the game into disrepute dishing up that sort of crap. People are paying a small fortune to watch that nonsense.

  21. Josif
    Hahaha, this league is an absolute joke. Arsenal 13 accurately predicted Foster would get carded for time wasting after 80.., and lo and behold, the very thing happens in the 82nd minute!

    I didn’t watch any updates from what went on at OT save from checking the table after our match on Google and seeing utd had won. But my suspicions utd got a gift/s are true. This league, so predictable..

  22. Like Arsenal 13, I was watching the match in India & the commentator was Phil (the ugly sister) Neville. He is an absolute waste of space.

    I didn’t want to comment during the game because I was so wound up. I feared a repeat of the last 2 officiating scams & was not disappointed. Despite it we won 3 points.

  23. hah, Nevilles, who else. Afterall their master the f word thought them exactly that. No wonder they take pride in ending ARSENALs invincible run.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *