A Snowy Night in West Bromwich (1/2/21)

<-- Could've guessed Tierney was gonna have himself a day when we saw him warming up like this...

Arsenal started 2021 with a BANG, defeating West Bromwich Albion 4-0, thanks to two goals from Lacazette, and 1 each from Kieran Tierney, and Bukayo Saka. Notable performances were those three, Emile Smith Rowe and our two center backs. Rob Holding and Pablo Mari put in solid performances; they've been great for us these last few games.

Tierney started off the scoring in the 23rd minute with one of the more beautiful solo goals I've seen this season. He took on his defender on the left side with loads of confidence, then brilliantly curled it in the far post on his weak foot. Just 5 minutes after that, the golden boy Bukayo Saka finished another one after a buildup reminiscent of our Wenger days. Arteta Ball, if you will. Lacazette then had a couple nice finishes in the 60th and 64th minute to finish West Brom off.

I don't think it would be an overreaction to say it was one of our best performances in LONG time. We were dynamic all over the pitch. Finally we're showing some confidence! Gotta attribute that to the youngsters.

I have a lot to say about a couple players, so I'll probably end up writing some blogs going in depth with each of their performances. With that being said, here are some of my thoughts on our team right now.

Tierney will eventually be our captain. He bleeds Arsenal red, and after the performance he put into today it would be tough not to give him the armband next game.

Aubameyang continues to disappoint. It's tough to call it a slump at this point because it doesn't even look like he's putting in effort. At the very least we should give the captain's armband to someone else (See above).

Emile Smith Rowe is the creative player we so desperately needed in this Arsenal squad. He's a breath of fresh air. He was making difficult one touch passes, which is extremely impressive considering the weather. His evidently high soccer IQ has been on display the last few games, and it's been captivating to watch.

We can't call Saka a youngster anymore, cause of the implication that he shouldn't be playing first team football. He is one of the better players in the Prem at the moment, and the sky is truly the limit if he continues down this path.

We should just start Lacazette every game at this point. The man just finds a way to score, even if it's not pretty. He consistently finds himself in scoring opportunities, and now that his confidence is rising he will start scoring a lot more of them. His defensive work rate is similar to Alexis Sanchez as well, which is a rare attribute for a striker to have.

I'll talk about our defense in another blog, but they've been nothing but solid.

That about sums up the game today. Things are finally looking up. Here is a wallpaper and a meme as celebration.

COYG