West Bromwich Albion have stunned Arsenal on their own turf in the past, having recorded a 3-2 triumph back in September 2010.
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West Bromwich Albion (WBA) manager Sam Allardyce has challenged his players to pull off another “big shock” against Arsenal, in the team’s upcoming Premier League encounter. While WBA has registered draws against Liverpool and Manchester United, the highlight of the campaign so far has been the 5-2 victory at Chelsea. They will be backing themselves to get the job done against Arsenal, who were recently knocked out of the UEFA Europa League following a 0-0 draw in the second leg of the semi-finals against Villareal.
Albion have further lost just one of their last five matches, which is praiseworthy to say the least.
“We’ve got to try and win it. It doesn’t matter how we win, we just need to win. Is it a mistake from them? Is it a set-piece from us? Is it a great goal? Is it a Callum Robinson inspired performance like it was at Chelsea? Whatever it might be, we just need to try and achieve a shock victory,” he said.
“I don’t want to hear any talk of where Arsenal are this season or how they have been performing. If we go there and pick up three points, it would be a huge scalp. We shocked Liverpool. We shocked Man United here at The Hawthorns. We obviously shocked Chelsea. I’d like the players to perform at their peak level of performance, which was those three games I’ve just mentioned. It’ll be a hard task, but they’ve got to try and achieve it,” added Allardyce.
The Baggies have stunned Arsenal on their own turf in the past, having recorded a 3-2 triumph over the north London outfit back in September 2010. Strikes from Peter Odemwingie, Gonzalo Jara and Jerome Thomas capped off a memorable afternoon in the capital for Albion.
Mbaye Diagne will be the man to watch out for on Sunday at the Emirates Stadium. The towering Senegalese international can be a match-winner on his day. Diagne netted his third goal in blue and white stripes with a bullet header to secure a 1-1 draw against Wolves on Monday evening.
The 29-year-old will be hoping to make it back-to-back goals against Arsenal, who have failed to impress defensively in their last six home matches.
And with Sunday’s opponents failing to keep a shutout from their last six home matches, the 29-year-old will be hoping to net back-to-back goals as he looks to end the season on a positive note.
