West Brom: Winger admits another Arsenal upset is a long shot

Nov 1 2011 by Christopher Lepkowski, Birmingham Mail

JEROME Thomas has conceded the odds of another Albion upset at Arsenal are heavily stacked against Roy Hodgson’s men.

The Baggies winger was a goalscorer in last season’s 3-2 win at the Emirates, which was regarded as one of the club’s most outstanding performances in the Premier League.

Albion travel to north London this Saturday hoping for another shock result, but they will come up against a Gunners team which has won eight of its last nine games – notably a 5-3 victory against Chelsea at the weekend.

The Baggies defence will also have to contend with Robin Van Persie, who has scored 28 goals in his last 27 games.

Albion will spend this week trying to solve the problems which blighted their defeat to Liverpool on Saturday. Thomas, scorer of Albion’s third goal in that victory last year, said: “We don’t forget it because there are things the manager is not happy with and things we’re not happy with and we need to work on them in the week.

“But come the back end of the week, on Thursday or Friday, we will put it behind us and focus on Arsenal.

“We saw their result and we would have been a lot more confident if we hadn’t seen what they did to Chelsea.

“Everyone knows going to the Emirates isn’t going to be easy regardless of what form Arsenal are in and what form we’re in.

“We can take confidence from our performance last season but it’s a whole new year now.