Alex Song

The north London outfit were shocked by the Baggies on Saturday afternoon, losing 3-2 to the newly-promoted outfit at the Emirates Stadium.

After the match manager Arsene Wenger read the riot act to his players and heavily criticised them in the media, calling their all round display ‘poor’ and below par of what he expected.

Defeat meant they failed to close the gap on league leaders Chelsea after their loss at Manchester City in what was a bad weekend for England’s Champions League participants.

Arsenal head to Stamford Bridge next Sunday to take on the reigning champions but before that face a tricky trip to Serbia to face Partizan.

Under current manager Aleksandar Stanojevic, Partizan have been in good form, winning the Serbian title before dumping out Belgian champions Anderlecht on their way to the group stages of the competition.

Despite losing their first group match at Shakhtar Donestk (9/2 – Group H winners) the majority of the players and the manager appear to be in a confident move, happily predicting the downfall of Arsenal (1/5).

However, Arsenal’s players are keen to prove that Saturday’s defeat to West Brom was nothing more than a rare slip-up, with Song issuing the rally cry to his team mates to show what the Gunners are capable of.

“Normally we win most games but we have just come here to do our best because we know in the last few days we have not done very well,” he said.

“We want to show we are ready.”

Arsenal head to the hostile Stadion FK Partizan still without the injured quartet Theo Walcott, Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabergas and Nicklas Bendtner.

Wenger has also ruled out goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, claiming the Spaniard has an elbow injury which has forced him to stay at home.

The French boss has given his backing to Almunia’s stand-in Lukasz Fabianski, who has failed to impress in recent appearances and will no doubt be put under pressure by the less than friendly Partizan supporters.

Gunners fans will have their fingers crossed Thomas Vermaelen will have recovered from an Achilles injury that has kept him out for the last three weeks.

Arsenal (10/1 Champions League outright) won just one of their five European matches on foreign soil last season but will be hoping they can set that record straight in Belgrade on Tuesday night.

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