Arsenal v. West Bromwich Albion 1-0 16/Aug/08

The new season began and new signing Samir Nasri won the game for the Gunners, as in his official EPL debut scored an early winner to bring calm and ease to the troubled London side. For moments West Brom could have brought problems to the home side but the Londoners slowed the pace and held tight in the back. Certainly the absence of EURO King Skipper Cesc had some weight but the lads could cope with such terrible absence. The Insider, through soccer net does well in revise the failures of our team.





The match had not even started, figuratively, when the newcomer was fed by Denilson in the box after a play that the Frenchman had started. A typical Arsenal play gave the one-nil lead at 4'. Nasri tried the goal in two occasions, both ineffectively. Gallas shot went just wide at 10'. Things passed quite calmly as West Brom had wished no more goals. Apart from that, some chances were given in the first thirty minutes, but they did not took much relevance due to the intention by the home side. The Arsenal threatened the away side several times between 25' to 37' but rested in clouds as a comfortable win was been achieved. The pace was controlled by Nasri, either from the left or right with a swaying attitude, always ubicuous. The center back handled the game comfortably and Manu Eboué did a fine performance against the shred picture of last season. Denilson found himself quite confused due to the scenario but in the worst of cases he could have done it better. The first half ended as it started; an initiative but mediocre home side against a visiting side that apparently did not even knew how the first goal entered the net.





The beginning of the second half, at 50', saw two clear chances to the away team which luckily did not enter Almunias goal. Afterwards Gallas moans and reproaches were ridiculous, this due to his bad marking and not team mates. Adebayor could have extended the lead in the 52' after a brilliant ball by Nasri. In the 61' Arsenal's left side seemed the only solution towards a functional approach to the goal. By the 70' things calmed so much that first-team choices who were not match fit jumped off the bench: Robin van Persie and Kolo Touré. An interesting thing to note was the substitution of Theo and Kolo, they switched positions, instead of arranging another player as Wenger usually does. This might be an interesting issue concerning rotation and Ebaums position. Remaining minutes were a usual training day, with the Albion decided and a resting Arsenal facing Twenty on Wednesday.