Gooners! Long time, no see! Welcome to WIITW – where you’ll find everything you need to know ahead of each and every Arsenal match.

Here’s the last couple of posts:

At 8pm (UK time) tonight, we play West Brom at the Emirates.

The Managers

Arsenal

Arsene Wenger on tonight’s opposition: “They have a way to deal with everybody, a strong defensive basis. They have a culture of the Premier League after being there for a long time, a manager who knows how the League works, a strong transition from defence to offence – it’s very difficult to play against them.”

On Lacazette: “He’s getting there, he’s adapted to the team play. He connects well and works hard for the team. Technically and tactically, I’m pleased. He still needs to adapt to the physical aspect, which will take some time.”

On the fans: “It is down to our performances. We want our fans to not have pre-conceived ideas. We need a successful season, we need them to believe in us. It depends on how focused we are in every game.”

West Brom

Tony Pulis on Arsenal: “They are a top team with top players. You go there knowing it will be a really tough game. They have some outstanding individual players – players who can win games by themselves. Irrespective of what the team are or are not doing, those players can change games.”

On Kieran Gibbs returning to the Emirates: “Kieran will look forward to it. I’m sure he’ll get a great reception from the supporters there as well. He’s done very well here.”

On Gareth Barry’s record: “Knowing Gareth, he’ll be more concerned with trying to win a game of football. It’s a remarkable achievement, he deserves it.”

Team News

Arsenal

Mesut Ozil and Theo Walcott both trained ahead of the game and could both feature at some point. Ozil had been absent with a knee inflammation, while Walcott picked up a knock during the League Cup win over Doncaster.

Danny Welbeck, Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla remain out. Calum Chambers came off with a hip injury against Doncaster and Wenger said the defender will be out until after the international break.

West Brom

Chris Brunt could make his 350th West Brom appearance tonight but his calf injury will be assessed ahead of the match. Nacer Chadli and Oliver Burke both face late fitness tests.

Jake Livermore could return to the West Brom squad tonight. He was given an extended break after his summer was interrupted by international duty with England.

Premier League Head-to-Head

P 22 W 15 D 3 L 4 F 44 A 23

22 15 3 4 44 23 Arsenal have lost just 4 PL games against West Brom – three of them coming at the Hawthorns.

The Baggies only PL win at Arsenal came on this day in 2010, when they won 3-2 at the Emirates. You have to got back to 1983 to find another West Brom win away to Arsenal.

Since that defeat in 2010, Arsenal have won six consecutive home matches against West Brom – conceding just one goal in the process.

Arsenal have conceded just four goals at home to West Brom since the move to the Emirates, with three of them being scored in that 3-2 defeat in 2010.

West Brom beat Arsenal at the Hawthorns back in March. The last time they won consecutive League games against the Gunners was in 1977 – but there were four years between those two victories!

The first PL game between the two sides came in August 2002. West Brom were back in the top flight after a 16-year absence. Arsenal proved to be too strong and ran out 5-2 winners, including a first (and only) League goal for Jeremie Aliadiere in an Arsenal shirt.

The two sides come into the game with just a point separating them. West Brom are 10th in the League, two places above Arsenal but they haven’t won a PL game since beating Burnley 1-0 over a month ago.

Olivier Giroud got the only goal when West Brom came to the Emirates last December. The Frenchman is still looking for his 100th Arsenal goal. His three goals makes him the highest scoring player for Arsenal against the Baggies in the Premier League era… along with Alexis Sanchez, Mikel Arteta, Theo Walcott, Samir Nasri and Robin Van Persie who all have three goals against West Brom.

That’s Interesting…

Jack Wilshere hasn’t scored a goal for Arsenal since the final day of the 2014-15 season when he smashed in this volley at home against West Brom. It was the second year in a row that a Wilshere goal was named “Goal of the Season”. The strike controversially won the award on Match of the Day, with Arsenal fans flooding the Twitter poll to vote for Wilshere. The incident resulted in producers changing the rules and the Goal of the Season is now decided by the pundits, who pick a winner based on the top three goals voted by the public.

Tony Pulis takes charge at the Emirates for the 10th time tonight. He’s lost all of his previous nine visits, seeing his side concede 20 goals and score just 3.

It’s going to be a night of some big milestones for West Brom. Along with Chris Brunt potentially making his 350th appearance for the club, Tony Pulis will become the first West Brom manager to take charge of 100 Premier League games.

Another milestone is that of Gareth Barry. He could make his 633rd appearance in the Premier League tonight, moving above Ryan Giggs in the all-time appearance charts. Barry made his Premier League debut as a substitute for Aston Villa against Derby in May 1998 – the same weekend that Arsenal lifted the Premier League title for the very first time!

Gareth Barry made his England debut in May 2000, during a European Championships warm-up game against Ukraine. England won the game 2-0, with Tony Adams getting the second goal. The legendary Arsenal captain was the last English player to score an international goal at the famous old Wembley Stadium.

West Brom have won the First Division title just once in their history, back in the 1919-20 seaon. They scored an impressive 104 goals in 42 games, with the next highest scoring team being 9th-place Aston Villa on 75 goals. Arsenal finished 10th that season, which was their first back in the top flight having been controversially elected to take a spot in the expanded First Division. The Gunners took the place that Spurs felt should have gone to them. Arsenal have never been outside the top division since then. 98 years and counting baby!

Kieran Gibbs returns to Arsenal tonight. He joined West Brom at the end of the August after spending 13 years at Arsenal. Gibbs made 137 Premier League appearances for the Gunners, scoring twice. The full-back has featured in every West Brom game since moving to the Hawthorns and should play again tonight. Arsene Wenger has said in the build-up that Gibbs’ departure was “more painful” than Oxlade-Chamberlain’s. Gibbs may not be world class but there was no doubting his professionalism and commitment to Arsenal. We can’t ever forget this tackle too, a vital intervention to help secure a 3-2 win (ironically at West Brom) and Champions League qualification.

Gibbs isn’t the only player to represent both Arsenal and West Brom in the Premier League. Nigerian striker Kanu is a bit of a cult hero at Arsenal. He spent five years at Highbury before joining the Baggies in 2004. In a match against Arsenal in 2005, Kanu got the equaliser as West Brom went on to beat the Gunners 2-1. It was a first home win for West Brom over Arsenal since 1973.

Jerome Thomas is another ex-Arsenal man to come back and haunt us in a West Brom shirt. He put them 3-0 up at the Emirates in 2010 and, although Samir Nasri got two back, West Brom went on to their first win at Arsenal in over 26 years. I’m a big fan of Kieran Gibbs but I really hope he doesn’t have a similar impact on the game tonight…

How about some goals?

August 2002 – Arsenal 5-2 West Brom: The Gunners were comfortable winners over newly-promoted West Brom in this one. Sylvain Wiltord scored twice and both full-backs, Lauren and Ashley Cole, also found the net.

And that’s that…

Kick-off is at 8pm tonight at the Emirates. The Gunners put in a great display to get a point at Chelsea last week and a win tonight would make it a decent couple of weeks. Three points puts us into 7th in the table and just a point off the top four. We’ve actually got a decent run of fixtures over the next few weeks. Apart from a trip to Everton, our next big game isn’t until we play Man City in November. We’ve got to start racking up points to make up ground on those at the top. Victory this evening would be a great start.

I’ll be back in a few days to preview our Europa League trip to BATE Borisov.

Until then, have a good week and thanks for reading!