Premier League finale – Previewing West Brom vs. Arsenal « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

By Phil Gregory

Just a quick preview from me today, as I need to be heading over to the library soon, with finals looming. Arsenal travel up West Brom today looking to tie up third place and with it guaranteed Champions League football, complete with no tricky qualifiers in August. Such a league finish would give us a comfortable start to next season and hopefully help us to start the season strongly.

RefWatch has thrown up some interesting tidbits, in that the referee isn’t a clown and Roy might just be willing to go a little easy on us today. That’d be nice, given how much is at stake but there is always the possibility he’ll want to leave club management with a win, so I’ll be nervously following the game, nonetheless!

In injury news, minor concerns around the likes of Squillaci, Park and Santos aren’t expected to preclude them from appearing in this game if required; Theo Walcott may be back from his hamstring injury, while Sagna is of course out. Diaby is expected to miss our final game, while Arteta is another sidelined midfielder

Szcznesy

Jenkinson Koscielny Vermaelen Santos

Song Ramsey

Rosicky

Benayoun Van Persie Gervinho

Sagna’s injury forces a slight defensive reshuffle, but it does give us a chance to see Jenkinson in action. The youngster endured a baptism of fire in his early Arsenal career and look all at sea defensively, but quickly improved that side of his game and after a couple of months was looking like a promising player. Hopefully he’s ready to come back into the side after his injury layoff.

Koscielny plays in defence with the news of his inclusion in France’s Euro2012 squad adding just that little extra bit of motivation to play a blinder. The call up is recognition of the irmpvoement and development that Laurent has made since his arrival, and is testament to how well the French defender has done. Santos comes in at left back for what is, after all, a fairly tough away game.

The attack will likely shape up similarly to how it was at home versus Norwich. Gervinho needs to pack his shooting boots and start to put away chances, but that will come with time and otherwise I think he’s a good player, a livewire who can beat a man and break down a defence. Yossi Benayoun will probably start in what is possibly his final Arsenal appearance. The Israeli’s performances have been good this season, and his experience and professionalism wouldn’t do any harm in the squad… if the likes of Chamakh and Arshavin are sold over the summer, I think a one year deal with Yossi would be a great move, a player to ensure we’re not overly reliant on the still-raw Ryo while Gervinho heads off to the African Cup of Nations (again) in January.

Finals or no finals, there’s no way I’m going to be stuck revising when the Premier League’s final weekend is nearing, so a pub revision break is the order of the day I suspect. 2-0 to the Arsenal for me… enjoy the game!