As Champagne moments go it was one of West Bromwich Albion’s best of their Premier League history.

Albion taking a 3-0 lead at the Emirates will linger on in the memory of anyone who was fortunate enough to be there.

The final score was a more respectable – if you’re Arsene Wenger – 3-2 victory for Albion, with Samir Nasri dazzling during the final throes of the game for the home side.

This year the dynamics of the game are slightly different.

The same old tedious questions might be asked of Wenger, whose stealth transformation of how footballers went about their lives and business continues to be overlooked by bar-stool preachers and shock-jock radio presenters.

But, unlike last season, Arsenal are on fire.

They have won eight of their last 10 games, nine of which are unbeaten.

More so, Robin Van Persie has netted 28 goals in his last 27 starts.

So how do you stop Arsenal and will last season’s results – Albion also claimed a 2-2 draw at The Hawthorns - have any bearing on the outcome?

Michael Appleton insists not. The Baggies No2 feels that there is little relevance to last season’s Emirates game, where Peter Odemwingie, Gonzalo Jara and Jerome Thomas scored.

“I’m not sure Arsenal will be too worried about last season,” said the Hawthorns assistant manager. “They are in good form, and just went to Chelsea and scored five goals.

“Then they played Marseille during the week and drew so I don’t see Arsenal being one of those teams who worry too much about the opposition who come to the Emirates.

“They play their own way and we have to make sure we start the game better than we did against Liverpool.

“We’ve proven against Manchester United and Chelsea that if we apply ourselves properly, get about the field and do the right things then we can give anybody a good game.”

As for Van Persie – how do Jonas Olsson and co stop him?

Appleton explained that focusing on just him would be foolish and potentially very costly.

He added: “They will have all the information they need to know about him, whether that’s us talking to the players or being shown numerous videos on Van Persie and Arsenal’s strengths as an attacking team.

“From our point of view, defensively they have looked more solid. I think we got caught a few times against Liverpool and were naive.

“We tried to throw too many people forward instead where a better option might have been being more cautious in our approach instead of maybe going for one or two passes to get behind them, perhaps going for five or six passes and more build up play.

“We’ve defended crosses a lot better this year, we’ve been better on set-pieces too, we’ve defended counter-attacks better.

“It’s more of what we do in possession of the ball and that’s what we need to concentrate on this week, rather than being too concerned about what one player has done for one side.

“If you concentrate too much on Robin Van Persie, they have three or four others who can easily destroy you on their day.

“We need to make sure we don’t underestimate those other players.”