Arsenal Look To Defeat West Brom To Keep Pressure on Chelsea

Arsenal get back to the bread and butter of Premier League football today when West Brom pay a visit to the Emirates in a game that should hopefully see Arsenal get a chance to make up some ground on leaders Chelsea.

I say hopefully because Chelsea play earlier in the day in their first real test of their league campaign away to Man City in the battle of clubs who don't have to pay their debts like everyone else does.

West Brom are known by their fans as the "boing, boing Baggies" for their knack of getting promoted and relegated in quick succession, but they look like they could change that habit this season.

Their two losses so far were a 6-0 drubbing by Chelsea in their opening game and an unlucky 1-0 defeat away to Liverpool.

They have beaten both Sunderland and Birmingham at home and drawn at home to the Spuds and their seven-point return from five games is admirable considering the opposition they have faced.

Arsenal have quite a few injuries and it means that the boss has very few options in most positions on the pitch.

With our captain and star player Cesc out, it means that our list of injured players is as per usual longer than that of any other team in the league as we sit proudly on top of the physioroom.com injury league table with 11 players listed as injured or doubtful for today's game.

The starting lineup should have Almunia in goal with a back four of Sagna, Clichy, Koscielny, and Squillaci as Vermaelen and Gibbs are both injured, Eboue is doubtful, and Djourou is only just back from a whole year of injury problems.

In midfield, Song should return from suspension and play alongside Wilshere and Nasri. The only other players available to play would seem to be Denilson and Lansbury, and Rosicky is another injury doubt for the day.

I'm leaving Diaby out of the equation; I don't think he will play, as he has never been the fastest to recover from injury, and I think he will be rested for Tuesday.

Our attack should be led by Chamakh with Arshavin on the left and Rosicky (if he's fit) on the right.

There aren't too many other options, and if Rosicky doesn't make it, we could see Denilson come in as a midfielder and Nasri push wide.

Personally, I would prefer to see Nasri stay in the middle with Lansbury getting the wide role or Eboue playing there if he recovers from his knock in time.

There's an awful lot of ifs and buts in that projected team, and with a trip to Belgrade on Tuesday night we have to hope that no more players are added to our injury list.

We will of course have Vela and JET on the bench I would imagine and if things are going our way I wouldn't be surprised to see Vela on and maybe even JET too.

Thankfully from the perspective of our players who aren't yet injured, West Brom don't have a reputation as a kicking team and in fact they do their best to play football as it should be played whenever they can.

With the victory over the Spurs fresh in the players' minds, I'm hoping for them to play at the same tempo and take the game to West Brom from the start.

One of the factors that went in our favour against the Spurs was that their pitch was in such good condition and it was quite like our own.

In our away league matches so far this season, the opposition have looked to keep the grass as long as they can get away with in an attempt to slow down our passing game, but that won't happen at home. 

As long as our walking wounded allow us to finish the game with 11 fit players on the pitch, I can't see West Brom getting anything from the game and I think Arsenal will win 3-1.

I think Chamakh will continue his habit of scoring in our home games and I hope that Wilshere can get his name on the scoresheet too. 

There's plenty of other Arsenal bits and pieces to discuss today, but to be honest it's all pretty inconsequential compared to the business of playing and winning football matches, and that's what Arsenal need to concentrate on today.

I'll be hoping to get a live stream from somewhere and maybe even tuning into the LadyArse chat room/live blog to talk to other Gooners while watching the game. I will of course be back tomorrow with my review of today's events.

See you tomorrow.