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Sam Allardyce was once Arsene Wenger's tormentor while his famous Bolton side prided themselves on being Arsenal's bogey team - Mikel Arteta is expecting nothing less than a serious test against the club's old foe when his Gunners travel to West Brom

Sam Allardyce's former players will never forget how much he used to relish getting under the skin of Arsenal and their manager Arsene Wenger.

One player from his time at Blackburn recalls how, having identified goalkeepers Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski as vulnerable, Allardyce instructed one player to simply run straight at them whenever long free-kicks were pumped into the box, paying no attention to where the ball was going and with the sole aim of unsettling and distracting the keeper while his team-mates challenged for the ball.

Such methods were typical of the direct and physical approach used to rile Wenger and they brought Allardyce ample reward, especially when his Bolton team became Arsenal's bogey side.