SAM’S GUNNER GET YOU
Baggies boss targets Arsenal in his relegation table of doom
JUST when it looked like it could not get any worse for Mikel Arteta and Arsenal, Sam Allardyce has included them in his own personal relegation Table of Doom.
West Brom’s new manager is a survival expert and says Mikel Arteta’s side are right in the mix to go down.
Allardyce has pinpointed an eightclub mini- league that he wants his Baggies team to finish top of – and he’s not given 15th placed Arsenal a free pass.
The Gunners might be one of the so- called Big Six but Big Sam says they can’t escape the fact that they are one of West Brom’s relegation rivals.
“If they are in the bottom eight of the Premier League at the moment, then yes absolutely,” said Allardyce.
“I believe they haven’t won a Premier League game in nearly double figures, and it appears their big results have come in the Europa
League. Getting beaten in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night drains the confidence of Arsenal’s players, of course it will.
“They will be wondering what’s hit them. They will be wondering why they’re down there and they will be wondering what it’s going to take to get out of that position.”
By the time Arsenal kick off against Chelsea on Boxing Day evening, they could be just two points off the drop zone. A club that has not been relegated from
English football’s top division since 1913 then face fellow strugglers Brighton and West Brom in the week after Chelsea.
Arteta’s flops, sitting 15th th in the table, will be even n closer to the bottom three on points if Fulham beat Southampton in their r earlier start on Saturday.
And Frank Lampard rd yesterday vowed to show how Arsenal no mercy. Just t a f few months ago, who could have believed this would be the outcome when Pierre- Emerick Aubameyang scored twice in the FA Cup final as Arteta’s side beat Lampard’s Chels Chelsea 2- 1 at Wembley.
B But Lampard, left, has ur urged Chelsea not to be the s spark that ignites a tu turnaround when his side v visit the Emirates.
The Blues boss, a veteran of many a London derby as a playe player, said: “The players have t to play l with controlled passion because that’s what a derby brings.
“When you play a derby, form does go out the window. So we have to expect the best Arsenal, which is a really good footballing team, with lots of threats in attacking areas.”
But Arteta is under no illusions. His side have managed just five points from their last 10 league games and rolled over meekly in the 4- 1 Carabao Cup defeat by Manchester City.
He received a lift yesterday when Gabriel Martinelli, the Gunners’ best player against City until he came off injured, declared himself fit for the Chelsea game.