Dean Ashton’s debut was against Arsenal when we beat the north londoners 3-2 at their place and this weekend the former Hammer will be praying that Seb Haller and Mickey Antonio can inspire a similar result in north London.
Deano knows more than a little about how strikers can operate and reckons that in these two we have a pairing to trouble the best around.
It was shown in two games over Saints when the duo – tried on just two occasions this season caused havoc within a defence which simply couldn’t cope with their movement and aggression.
Haller looked an entirely different player with the big fella alongside and Ashton, like the rest of us, is looking for a lot more of the same against the tenth placed Gooners who certainly aren’t having the season they would have wanted or expected.
Victory over there would be yet another massive boost after a fine performance at anfield and the three points against Saints and Deano has been discussing things at https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/march/05-march/dean-ashton-antonio-and-haller-are-handful-me-and-marlon
He said: “Antonio is an absolute handful and would be an absolute nightmare to play against for any defender because he’s got the pace, he’s raw and he’s as strong as an ox.
And I think his end-product is improving season on season as well, which I think is so important.
“Personally, when I played alongside Marlon Harewood, who was a similar type of player with that power, pace and clever runs, it makes your life so much easier to then find space and make sure you’re in the box when the ball comes in, which is exactly what happened against Southampton at the weekend.
“If I was those two, I’d be licking my lips at the prospect of going up against Arsenal’s centre-backs, as they don’t necessarily like the physical side of the game, and prefer to have the ball at their feet and play.
So the key is to look to them, get the ball up to them and test the Arsenal defence with a front line that should be feeling confident after what happened last weekend.”
He added: “As soon as you put players around Haller with a bit of pace, like Antonio and Jarrod Bowen, that’s when you see the best of him, when the pressure is not necessarily all on himself, and we saw that against Southampton when he really shone.
“You’ve got certain players who are really suited to playing up front on their own and are happy to do lots of running in behind and can get on the end of things and have the pace to be a real nuisance, or you have players like myself, Andy Carroll and Sebastien Haller, who are only as good as players making runs in and around them, taking away defenders and giving you a free run to really attack the ball, lay the ball off and flick things around the corner.
“When other players are there, it can really help your game and it was exactly the same for me when I was playing.”