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Alan Pardew wants West Brom to come out of the January transfer window better equipped to emulate Arsenal’s attacking style.
Alan Pardew wants West Brom to come out of the January transfer window better equipped to emulate Arsenal’s attacking style. Photograph: Gowthorpe/BPI/Rex/Shutterstock
Alan Pardew wants West Brom to come out of the January transfer window better equipped to emulate Arsenal’s attacking style. Photograph: Gowthorpe/BPI/Rex/Shutterstock

Alan Pardew praises Arsène Wenger and hopes to reinforce West Brom’s arsenal

This article is more than 6 years old
Wenger to break record for number of Premier League games on Sunday
Pardew wants January attacking additions to haul West Brom out of trouble

When Arsène Wenger breaks the Premier League record for number of games in charge on Sunday afternoon Alan Pardew will be the first rival manager to congratulate him. The new man in charge at West Bromwich Albion has had the odd run-in with his Arsenal counterpart in the past – “It was just the one run-in, there have been plenty of games before and since where nothing’s happened” – but has worked out a plan to acknowledge Wenger’s milestone.

“Before the game I’m going to shake his hand and say: ‘Well done’,” Pardew said. “Then hopefully at the end I’ll be able to shake his hand again and say: ‘unlucky’.”

Pardew will do well to retain his composure should that scenario come to pass at The Hawthorns, for West Brom have yet to record a win in six games under his control and have managed two goals. Draws against Liverpool and Everton have been impressive in different ways and Albion are arguably improving as they absorb Pardew’s ideas, though until the first victory arrives a new manager at a club in the bottom three cannot afford to relax.

“We are under a certain amount of pressure to improve results, certainly to score more goals,” Pardew said, though he is not one to suggest pressure only exists at the bottom end of the table. His admiration for Sunday’s opponent is genuine and Pardew would never dream of arguing, as some managers have in the past, that it is easy being in charge of a top club full of quality players.

“At top clubs you always have to win, that’s a different kind of pressure and Arsène has dealt with it with dignity for 20 years,” he said. “It’s a job well done, to be honest it is hard to find the words to do justice to what he has achieved in English football. He more than anyone else brought in the sort of professionalism we take for granted now. He arrived in an era when players were perhaps not as professional as they could have been and he changed all that.

“The other reason I admire him is because he has brought something else to the Premier League. His sides are always positive, trying to gain the upper hand and play in the right way. As we have just seen over the festive period lots of teams are happy not to have the initiative, they just concentrate on trying to stop their opponents playing. Arsenal are never like that. Arsène’s sides try to take the initiative in every game they play, even against Barcelona, and I don’t think he gets enough credit for that.”

Arsène Wenger and Alan Pardew clash during West Ham’s 1-0 victory over Arsenal Upton Park in 2006. Photograph: Glenn Campbell/AFP/Getty Images

While such idealism can only be applauded, Pardew is not under the illusion that attempting to outplay Arsenal will be a simple task for a side a little short on quality. “We know we will be facing a superior team, their front three alone is first-class,” he said. “Any World Cup side would be happy with that trio, whereas we don’t have that quality.

“We have been working on becoming more solid, and we have to an extent, but the reason we are short of goals is because we haven’t had that extra bit of quality in the final third to put opponents under pressure. Once we can manage to put opponents under more pressure we might be able to create some luck for ourselves.”

Pardew was disappointed when Nacer Chadli’s attempted comeback against Stoke went wrong. The Belgian is back to square one with his hip injury and could be out for another two months, robbing Albion of one of their most creative players at a crucial stage of the season. With James Morrison also unavailable, Pardew will have to ask for money for reinforcements in January, even though he is aware of the club’s financial situation. “Money is tight but I need to keep up the quality ratio,” he said. “We have to get more goals on the board in the second half of the season, we can’t win games otherwise. Whatever money we spend in January will be spent for the right reasons.”

Most Albion supporters have a fair idea of how the club may raise money to support Pardew, with Jonny Evans interesting both Manchester clubs as well as Arsenal. “I’m not aware of any bids, the only noise about Jonny is in the media at the moment but that’s not to say it is wrong,” Pardew said. “I don’t know how that situation will resolve itself but I’m fairly confident Jonny will play in the next two games.”

West Bromwich visit West Ham on Tuesday, meaning that whatever advantage they gain from Arsenal having played on Thursday night will be negated when they have to play twice in an even shorter space of time. “An extra 48 hours rest will be nice for us when we play Arsenal, but playing West Ham two days later could be a big problem, especially as they will not have played for a week,” Pardew said.

West Ham play Tottenham two days after West Brom but Tuesday’s game could have relegation ramifications for two clubs at the wrong end of the table, and Pardew clearly feels the playing field is not quite level. “I don’t quite understand it,” he said. “A two-day turnaround is just not fair.”

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