West Brom cause early panic, but Arsenal ride the storm as Alexandre Lacazette becomes the latest premium striker to catch the eye in Gameweek 6.
Here are the notes from Monday night’s fixture.
Lacazette stakes his claim
In a Gameweek awash with goals from big-name forwards, it was perhaps predictable that Alexandre Lacazette would have his say.
The Frenchman headed home a first-half opener after Alexis Sanchez’s free-kick struck the bar and followed that up with a second-half penalty.
That confirmed what we already knew – Lacazette will monopolise spot-kicks and deny Sanchez that avenue for points.
Arsene Wenger offered more on this post-match.
“Yeah, until now I gave it to him. I observed him a little bit because we work as well on penalties in training. And I think he took his penalty well tonight”
The brace took Lacazette to four goals for the season – all scored in home matches.
That’s significant, given that he failed to start at Liverpool and was withdrawn on 65 minutes at Chelsea and after 78 minutes at Liverpool. He clearly has to earn more pitch-time and produce points away from home before we can elevate him in our pecking order.
However, those spot-kicks could be significant. Notably, Alvaro Morata is currently the top transfer target up front, despite the fact that he is expected to give way to Eden Hazard as Chelsea’s penalty taker.
As for Sanchez, he showed glimpses and nice touches in a support role on the left, but never made penetrating runs that threatened to hurt West Brom. He enjoyed just two touches in the penalty area, with all four of his efforts arriving from range.
Sanchez will certainly need to show more if we are to consider investment. With the big-hitting forwards so prominent, he needs a big return to change the current landscape.
Aaron Ramsey – deployed on the right of Lacazette – was arguably the more impressive midfield option on show. He earned the assist for the penalty and was more prominent in the Baggies penalty area.
Gunners escape with shut-out
The Arsenal defence was stretched at times by a notoriously limited West Brom attack.
The Baggies could, and should, have benefited from at least one first-half goal; Jay Rodriguez was particularly unfortunate not to have been awarded a penalty.
But Arsene Wenger’s defence held on to earn a third successive clean sheet, with the highly impressive Nacho Monreal fetching bonus points for a third straight match.
His Bonus Points System (BPS) score of 33 won him two bonus points and continued his superb season for Baseline BPS.
With Brighton and Swansea City next at the Emirates, further returns would seem likely for the Spaniard and his defensive team-mates.
Baggies empty-handed
West Brom suffered another defeat at the Emirates, despite those best efforts in the first half.
Tony Pulis retained the 3-5-2 formation he trialled in the cup against Man City last week, with Kieran Gibbs and Allan Nyom utilised as wing-backs.
The Baggies boss chose to drop Matt Phillips to the bench, and with Chris Brunt also kept in reserve, their best two deliverers of a set-piece were absent for much of the match.
That left Gibbs and Jake Livermore on dead-balls and they set up just a single attempt from a set-play situation.
Despite our expectations, and last year’s stats, Ahmed Hegazi’s Gameweek 1 goal is West Brom’s only strike from a set-piece all season.
Hegazi’s 1.4 million owners will now be hoping that Pulis retains a three-man defence for the visit of Watford in Gameweek 7, or that their man can retain his start even in a back four. Neither looks certain.
