I do like Mondays

Evening All.

I wasn't going to write this evening because, well, I couldn't really be bothered. We drew 1-1 yesterday at West Brom. An acceptable, if unspectacular result. Nothing to set the heart racing and not a good enough performance to force me into writing a bespoke piece. But this evening we received a piece of good news, depending on how you view it. I'll touch upon that later and, for the record, I see it as most excellent news.

While I'm here, I'll give a quick summary of our game yesterday. I haven't yet seen highlights of the encounter. The BBC wait until Tuesday to put MOTD2 on iPlayer. Who's still talking about the weekend's games on Tuesday? Ridiculous. I'll watch when I get round to it and in the mean time, keep this report brief.

When the teams were announced, I must admit that West Brom looked a surprisingly good side. Their midfield and attack in particular looked very strong. Mulumbu and Sessegnon are players I have always rated. The former is an especially underrated talent and seems the type of player we could have made a move for in the last 12 months, had he been a couple of years younger. Along with the promising talent that is Saido Berahino and of course Le Sulk, it was clear from the off that the Baggies could earn something from the game.

As I said, I haven't seen even a minute of play so I'm going on the opinion of others when I summarise. It seems like we dominated the early stages before our opponents got into it a bit more. Not much to comment on the first 45 aside from the torrid performance of Jack Wilshere. Playing out of position is not ideal and being thwacked by every team in the land cannot help but he's been a little under par recently. I would have started a more natural winger like Gnabry to really get at West Brom's defence but I'm no expert. Perhaps the boss wanted a more experienced figure playing in a potentially tough game. Nevertheless I disagree with his proclamation that out wide is one of Jack's best positions. He's known for his direct runs but they really do not work on the flanks.

Frustratingly, we conceded on the brink of half time. I hear the marking was suspect and this gets to me because despite our supposed solidness, our defensive record is in fact quite poor this year, most of all in the league. It’s unfair on Woj that we insist on conceding goals he can do nothing about, particularly in light of his fantastic form this season and OCD about clean sheets. In fairness though, Claudio Yacob will not have been the man pointed out as an obvious goal threat in the pre-match preparation.

As much as I'm loath to use the cliché, we started the second half much like we ended the first. Wilshere still seemed to be uncomfortable as a wide man although he showed good spirit to try and rally the team as we emerged to take the field following the break. It's been said time and again, but that is exactly the sort of captain's behaviour that has made the lad a shoe-in for the arm-band when it next changes hands/arms.

When the inevitable change came, it was a surprise to see Aaron Ramsey removed despite his quiet nature on the day. Wilshere would have been the obvious candidate to replace, but major credit to Wenger; it paid off big time. Minutes later, the substitute, Thomas Rosicky, laid off Jack who shot from 30 yards. The ball ended up in the net although it took a nick of Olsson I think on the way. I've heard it described as both a 'small deflection' and 'basically an own goal' but regardless the strike went down next to the name of our man. He called his goal scoring record embarrassing in the week. He should say things like that more often.

In all seriousness, fair play to the guy for bouncing back from his first half performance and indeed the media storm that engulfed him this week. He also implied today that he had in fact been smoking but apologised. I think that's a nice response after that shambolic press release from his cousin or his dog or whoever represents him.

Not much else to report from the match aside from us holding out nicely. It looked like West Brom spurned a few chances but we were comfortable otherwise. Bendtner came on for Giroud just a little too early for it to count as time wasting which kind of harked back to the bad old days of introducing Marouane Chamakh to try and chase a game. That wasn't pretty but Spurs capitulating at home to West Ham made up for it big time. I don't use text speak often when writing, but seeing as I really did LOL on this occasion, it merits a one off inclusion. 

The big news tonight is that Keiran Gibbs has been called up to the England squad to replace Cheryl Tweedy's ex. As much as I've tried to, I just can't dislike the England national team and when one of our players gets a call up, I think it's kind of great. I get that this makes me a bit of a football hipster in a time when it's cool to play hard to get when supporting your own country. (‘I’ve given up watching England. Just can’t keep the ball’ etc.) But Gibbo has been playing so well for such a long time that it makes me happy to know that the big guys at the FA are watching. In all likelihood he won't get on the pitch for these crucial qualifiers but even though he made his debut for the Three Lions a few years ago, it kind of feels like a breakthrough. I really do love the guy. He’s so polite and friendly off the pitch but he leads well on it as well as being a superb defender.

So here's to a bruised rib forcing Cashley (Sorry. It still hurts.) into international retirement and Gibbo going to the World Cup. I'll try and write again soon.

G'Nigh.