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Alan Irvine: 'Arsenal are vulnerable'

Alan Irvine hopes that West Brom can be the latest team to capitalise on Arsenal's attacking philosophy ahead of facing the Gunners at The Hawthorns.

Alan Irvine has told his West Bromwich Albion team that Arsenal are there for the taking ahead of this afternoon's clash at The Hawthorns.

The Gunners lost 2-1 to Manchester United last weekend in a result that confirmed their worst start to a league season for 32 years.

Arsene Wenger's tactics have been called into question in recent weeks, and Irvine hopes that the Baggies can be the latest team to use the Frenchman's attacking philosophy against him.

"They play in such an open and expansive way," he told reporters. "They get so many players forward. On the one hand that gives you a huge problem dealing with all those players because I can give you video clip after video clip where they have eight players in the final third.

"That only leaves three [in deeper positions] and one of them is a goalkeeper, so straight away you can see the difficulties they've got and how you can break out and hurt them.

"But you've got to stop them first and Arsene's philosophy has been, 'we attack and in order to be effective we have to commit a lot of players forward'. What's a strength for Arsenal can also be a weakness but you've got to get the ball first and stop them from doing what they're so good at, which is opening teams up."

Kickoff in the West Midlands is scheduled for 12.45pm, with Arsenal eighth in the table, five places above Irvine and co.

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Arsenal Manager Arsene Wenger looks dejected during the Barclays Premier League match between Liverpool and Arsenal at Anfield on February 8, 2014
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Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Liverpool15113131131836
2Chelsea16104237191834
3Arsenal1686229151430
4Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest168442119228
5Manchester CityMan City168352823527
6Bournemouth167452421325
7Aston Villa167452425-125
8Fulham166642422224
9Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton166642625124
10Tottenham HotspurSpurs1672736191723
11Brentford167273230223
12Newcastle UnitedNewcastle166552321223
13Manchester UnitedMan Utd166462119222
14West Ham UnitedWest Ham165472129-819
15Crystal Palace163761721-416
16Everton153661421-715
17Leicester CityLeicester163582134-1314
18Ipswich TownIpswich162681628-1212
19Wolverhampton WanderersWolves1623112440-169
20Southampton1612131136-255


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