As we enter the New Year Arsenal fans are left pondering several questions after bidding farewell to 2017 with a disappointing 1-1 draw at West Brom.
Will Alexis Sanchez or Mesut Ozil leave in January or the summer or can we somehow keep hold of either player? Will Arsene Wenger leave in the summer, at the end of his latest deal, or stay longer? Who will we buy or sell in January? Will we learn from our mistakes and what will we do differently in 2018? The list is endless.
To answer in brief I believe both players will stay in January, but that we'll lose Sanchez in the summer. It would be better to keep both players, but if Sanchez does indeed want to go as we are being led to believe there is no point in forcing things. All clubs want to keep their best players, but only if they want to stay as we need a positive dressing room. Ozil missed the match at West Brom through injury, but has been in decent form of late so fingers crossed we can keep him so let's wait and see what happens.
As for Wenger, although I believe he has been a great servant to the club and given us some great times, it does feels like it is nearly time for this chapter to close. I think he'll honour his contract and stay at least another season and whenever he goes I'll look back at his reign and remember the good times. But whether a fan is Wenger in or out I don't think it will affect any decision and the likelihood is he'll still be around next season so we need to continue to get behind the team.
I am not expecting too much from our activity in the January transfer window despite some suggestions it could be busy for us. We might see some fringe players leave, most likely on loan, but as much as I would like to see a few new faces at the club I'm not convinced it will happen. I think we might get at least one, but not a big name player...you never know though!
The more immediate question though when reflecting on our latest match is whether or not the penalty call for West Brom's equaliser was correct? Referee Mike Dean pointed to the spot after former Gunner Kieran Gibbs flicked the ball into Calum Chambers hand inside the box. At first glance I thought it was a bad call from Dean, but having seen the replays again I am now not so sure. Yes it could be argued that it was more ball to hand and it was hit at him, but why did he even have his hands out like that? It was frustrating, but either way we hadn't really played well enough to get more than a point anyway.
In truth it was a rather tedious game to watch and regardless of the penalty call we should have played far better and tested West Brom goalkeeper Ben Foster a lot more than we did.
There were not too many chances of note in the opening 45 minutes, with the first falling to West Brom striker Jay Rodriguez, whose header was kept out by a diving save from Petr Cech.
At the other end Alexandre Lacazette exchanged passes with Hector Bellerin before seeing his shot deflect wide, while Alex Iwobi curled an effort over the crossbar. Granit Xhaka failed to trouble Foster with a long-range effort, while West Brom weren't creating too much either as Chris Brunt's free-kick sailed high and over the crossbar.
The closest either side came to a goal in the first half was when Iwobi's serving effort was well parried behind by Foster as he teams went in goalless at the break.
Arsenal were forced to make a substitution eight minutes before half-time when Sead Kolasinac was forced off injured, with Ainsley Maitland-Niles coming on in his place. There was a further defensive blow in the second half when Laurent Koscielny limped off and with some big games looming we need to hope both players aren't out for very long.
West Brom had the first real chances of the second half as Ahmed Hegazi shot high and wide before Brunt's free-kick was punched clear by Cech.
Arsenal were very slowly starting to wake up more as the second half unfolded, with Lacazette's powerful low drive being saved by the legs of Foster. Lacazette was again in the thick of the action soon after as he latched onto a pass from Sanchez, but he couldn't quite divert it goalwards. Iwobi then tried his luck from long-range, but it turned out to be a rather comfortable save for Foster.
At the other end, Cech denied Rodriguez as the match entered its final quarter and Bellerin made a crucial block to deny James McClean.
The deadlock was finally broken eight minutes from time when Craig Dawson fouled Sanchez on the edge of the box and the Chilean's free-kick deflected in off McClean for an own goal.
Although it was a rather boring match we had the lead and had less than 10 minutes of normal time to hold out, and the fact we couldn't made it all the more disappointing, as West Brom equalised soon after via Rodriguez's penalty.
There was time for one final chance in stoppage time as Shkodran Mustafi's cross found Lacazette near the side of the box. The French forward managed to get the better of two defenders, but his ball in caused no danger and went straight into the arms of Foster as the match ended all square.
OPPOSITION VIEW
West Brom fan Rob Myatt felt a draw was a fair result and believes the penalty call may not have been as contentious as some sections of the media have suggested.
"I think a point was the least we deserved," said Myatt. "Despite Arsenal bossing possession, they didn't really do anything with the ball and Foster went mostly untroubled for large periods.
"When you're in a wall, you need to be brave and McClean (despite uploading Instagram stories most days about his boxing training and how hard he is) chickened out of doing the simple thing and cost us more points again this season.
"The penalty was obviously contentious but I don't think it was as clear cut NOT a pen as the commentators on 5Live made it sound (listening via the radio with a Spanish stream).
"Why was his hand out in front of his body? Defenders in Spain (my place of residence) are taught in those situations to have their hands behind their back and I think Chambers, by having them out in front, made a motion towards the ball.
"The distance is obviously an issue, as stated in the Laws of the Game, but again Chambers knew Gibbs would cross, positioned himself that close with that body shape, and allowed Dean to make that call."
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
Looking back at the first half of the season and our match at West Brom I would describe us as far too Jekyll and Hyde. How can we go from a team producing great displays to draw at Chelsea and beat Tottenham to then fail to get going for over an hour against the Baggies.
Our inconsistency is one of the main reasons why we sit down in fifth. Spurs are a point behind us with a game in hand, but we are also only three points behind fourth-placed Liverpool. Other teams have dropped points as well, but we don't take advantage enough.
Manchester City are way above the rest and even if we had had a better season so far I don't think anyone could have caught them, but it's a shame we haven't put up a more serious challenge.
The Premier League is getting more and more competitive and anyone can beat anyone, so it is inevitable points get dropped, but it is the manner in which we have dropped some of them that makes it all the more frustrating. You can't do much about a goalkeeper having a superb display like David De Gea did against us, but lacklustre displays like we produced against West Brom are definitely avoidable and need addressed.
I am hoping a new year will mean a fresh start and maybe, just maybe, we can take things up another gear and produce some superb performances, but with Arsenal you just never know what is going to happen next so I'm not holding my breath.
The visit of Chelsea is our next match and let's just hope we can perform how we did in this same fixture last season. Whatever happens I would like to wish everyone a very happy new year!
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
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