Arsenal vs. West Brom: An undeserved win (on penalties) but who cares?

Arsenal’s Nicklas Bendtner at The Hawthorns on September 25, 2013 in West Bromwich, England. (Getty Images)

The squad

Ah, to be Arsène Wenger. On one hand, you’re lambasted for rotating academy players in. On the other, you’re lampooned for the injuries to first-team players. The critics can’t have it both ways. If Wenger plays Olivier Giroud, Aaron Ramsey or Mesut Özil, he’ll be criticised for over-playing them.

When he plays Gnabry, Akpom or Ryo Miyaichi, he’s criticised for throwing in the towel. Sure, there’s a middle ground, a magical fairy-tale land in which every single signing works out exactly as planned (or in which a club can simply buy any available player), but that is, after all, a fantasy.

Last season, we threw on a full-strength squad against Bradford and were humiliated. On this night, we threw on a squad of second-choices, the recently-injured, and the youth of today, and it worked out (barely).

Whenever you throw together a bunch of players who are unfamiliar (and far from fitness –Bendtner, is who I’m talking about), there’s bound to be some disjointedness and sloppiness. We got through despite that. On to a few players…

Nicklas Bendtner

Look, the man hadn’t played competitive football for club or country since May 2013. Between the width of his waist and the breadth of his beard, his aerodynamics were understandably off. For him to have played 120 minutes of football is therefore astounding.

Well, “astounding” might be overstating it, but still. He delivered an assist on our only goal of the game, a well-weighted pass, and had a few chances that he might have delivered on had he been more in-form.

His spot-kick may have been his first Arsenal goal since 2011, but it came at just the right time and with the appropriate amount of celebration.

Lukasz Fabia?ski

Mr. Flappyhandski actually turned in a decent performance despite conceding the equaliser to Saido Berahino. By the time the keeper has to make a save, I’ve always maintained, ten other guys have let him down in one way or another.

To criticise Fabia?ski for failing to save a point-blank header misses the point. Where were our centre-backs, each of whom towers over Berahino? Why didn’t anyone close down Shane Long to prevent his little chip? By the time the ball was in the net, a sequence of other failures preceded Fabia?ski’s. Otherwise, on the whole, he acquitted himself tolerably well.

Thomas Vermaelen

While it may be too early to memorise and declare lines from Walt Whitman’s “O Captain, My Captain!”, it was gratifying to see Vermaelen take to the field and perform as well as he did.

According to whoscored.com, he led the team in interceptions, shots blocked, effective clearances, and passing accuracy. In the absence of a true, in-form defensive midfielder (Mikel Arteta working back from injury and Isaac Hayden being, well, 18), Vermaelen linked defence to offense quite well and looks to be regaining the form and confidence that had abandoned him a year ago. Should this hold true, a centre-back rotation of Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny, and Per Mertesacker could be formidable indeed.

Long story short, we may not have deserved this win, but we got it. There’s a tricky visit to Liberty Stadium to face Swansea on Saturday, and we’ve continued a run that has seen us win 17 of our last 20 competitive matches (including eleven in a row on the road).

We may have underestimated Swansea a bit last year, but we won’t do so again this year. On top of that, this is a squad that wants to win and knows how, whether it’s a squeaky bum like tonight or a 3-0 over Fenerbahce. In either case, we’re on a nifty little run. Enjoy it while it lasts!