Outclassed by the Arsenal

 Sadly I couldn't see the Arsenal game, so I am having to go by the clips I saw on MOTD...

Wolves:
50% possession
1 shot on goal
0 on target

Those are the key statistics out of Saturday's game.

I cannot fail to admire the football Arsenal play. They're second only to Barcelona in the world for the football they play. But the highlights made our defending look poor. Made it look easy for Arsenal. We backed off continuously, letting them get into our box. The first goal alone came from poor defending - not dealing with the throw in and not closing down the crosser.

The second goal was unavoidable really. Much like at Molineux, we were pushing for an equaliser, and they killed us off on the counter-attack. Any question of offside is irrelevant. It's clear that, by hook or by crook, they were gonna get a second.

Probably the only positive to take from this? The truly outstanding performance of Wayne Hennessey. He made save after save, keeping the scoreline looking respectable. If we do go down, he is surely going to be one of the first to go.

Anyway, I want to skip past the Arsenal match, which was a blip, and focus on the more important task at hand - the first ever Premier League Black Country Derby. This is something that the inhabitants of the Molineux and the Hawthorns have been waiting for for years. The way they threw away their 3-0 lead is very encouraging. As is the fact that Mick hasn't lost to Roy in the 3 Premier League meetings between them.

But whilst it would be great to look at all the things wrong with Albion, we must look at ourselves. If we get up and into Albion's faces, we can set the early tempo and put them under pressure. We've got to keep the ball well, and can't keep backing off - we saw how that cost us at St Andrews last season. And most importantly, let's take our chances! And while we're at it, if we're thinking about gamesmanship, might be worth winding up Jara too. He seems to have an anger/discipline issue and if he can be got at, we might just have something to expose there.

It'll be a fantastic occasion, no matter what. I just hope that it's the Golden side of the Black Country celebrating come 2pm on Sunday 20th February.

As they say in these parts - C'mon me Babbies!