Premier League: West Brom manager Alan Irvine sees a defensive weakness in Arsenal

West Brom manager Alan Irvine hopes Arsenal's gung-ho attitude will be their undoing at The Hawthorns on Saturday.

Arsene Wenger's side gained a morale-boosting 2-0 Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund in the week but travel to the Midlands having lost their last two Premier League games and attracting criticism for their lack of defensive responsibility.

Irvine said of the Gunners: "They play in such an open and expansive way.

"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.

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.

"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'.

"That's his method. Chelsea wouldn't be quite as effective as that but then that's their decision. Manchester United under Louis (van Gaal) aren't being quite as open.

"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.

"They got a lot of criticism last week but Louis' play almost didn't work. If Arsenal had taken the chances they had it could have been a completely different result."