Barclays Premier League: West Brom vs Arsenal – Preview

Arsenal will be without key players Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott for today’s trip to West Brom in the Premier League. The visitors have better news on Nacho Monreal, who has recovered from an injury he picked up after colliding with the goalpost against Reading last weekend. Other than that, the only other injuries the Gunners have are long-term absentees in Abou Diaby and Ryo.

Nacho Monreal is available after picking up an injury in last week’s game with Reading.

Arsene Wenger has lost his voice, so Steve Bould has been taking the interviews for him to the media. Whether he will be on the sidelines today or not is unknown.

West Brom will be without Youssouf Mulumbu who picked up a needless red card in the Baggies’ game at West Ham last weekend. James Morrison returns for the hosts following a hamstring injury.

Arsenal have 8 games left and they are very much in the hunt for Champions League football next season. They are currently 2 points behind Chelsea who are 4th and 4 behind Tottenham in third, but with a game in hand over their North London rivals still.

The Hawthorns is a ground with happy memories for Gunners fans. Arsenal won there on the final day of last season to crucially seal 3rd place in the table. If Arsenal had lost that day, Tottenham would have finished 3rd and with Chelsea’s Champions League Final win over Bayern Munich last season, Arsenal would have played in the Europa League this season. Arsenal won 3-2, thanks to a series of errors from Marton Fulop. Ironically, Fulop was indeed once on the books of Tottenham Hotspur. You couldn’t make it up.

Arsenal will need another three points at The Hawthorns to keep up the pressure on their London rivals that are currently above them. Chelsea are at home to Sunderland tomorrow afternoon, whilst Tottenham are at home to Everton, the team just 2 points behind Arsenal in the table. It’s hard to tell what to want. A draw certainly wouldn’t be a bad result in that one as both would drop points. A Tottenham defeat along with an Arsenal win this weekend would help Arsenal, but Everton would then be well in the hunt too.

Chelsea and Tottenham’s Europa League commitments can only help the Gunners out. Chelsea have had a hectic week. They played last Saturday at Southampton, played Manchester United in the FA Cup on Monday and then faced Rubin Kazan on Thursday night in the Europa League. Spurs had a tough trip to Swansea last Saturday and FC Basel gave them a good test in the Europa League on Thursday, drawing 2-2. Gareth Bale also picked up an injury and is expected to be out for 2 games. In honesty, it looked a lot worse than that to me, but I’m no doctor. Arsenal haven’t played in a week, so they should be fresh for today’s game.

A trip to The Hawthorns is never easy. Arsenal haven’t lost there since October 2005, but West Brom aren’t a bad team. They usually give us a close game nowadays and West Brom picking up at least 1 point is certainly not out of the question. The Gunners needed two Mikel Arteta penalties to see the Baggies off in the reverse fixture back in December. The game finished 2-0 to Arsenal.

The Gunners have been in form lately though and know the importance of winning today. There are still some tough fixtures left for Arsenal, so winning today is a must really. Whilst Chelsea and Tottenham also have tough games, it’s always better to win your games than have to rely on other teams to do you a favour. If Arsenal play like they have done in recent weeks, then they should be able to beat West Brom today. League standings aren’t decided on if’s though, Arsenal have to go out there today and perform.