West Brom boss Roy Hodgson says his side’s victory at the Emirates earlier this season will have no impact when Arsenal visit the Hawthorns.

Promoted West Brom scored an unlikely 3-2 win away to Arsenal in September under former manager Roberto Di Matteo.

But results declined since and Hodgson took over from the sacked Di Matteo in February with the team now battling to avoid relegation from the English Premier League.

Hodgson – who was himself sacked from Liverpool earlier in the season – is hoping that his players will have taken advantage of a free week to prepare for Saturday’s daunting visit of Arsenal.

“It’s in the past (the 3-2 victory), I don’t involve myself in the past and I certainly don’t believe what you’ve done in that past helps what you do in the future,” Hodgson said.

“This is a new game, a fresh group of players and I don’t even know how our team tomorrow will compare to the team that beat Arsenal.”

“But we’ve had a free weekend when one can go and watch a game rather than prepare a game for yourself.”

“It is useful at this stage to have a couple of weeks to do a bit more training, to do a bit more work with the players.”

Hodgson also added that the break could potentially have disrupted West Brom’s good recent run of form – they have won one and drawn two of his three matches in charge.

“Sometimes when you are on a good run of results you want to keep playing as quickly as possible and not have long breaks between games, so I guess our performance will show whether it was an advantage or disadvantageous,” he said.

The Baggies will be without several key players for the fixture.

Scotland midfielder Graham Dorrans misses out with an ankle injury, on loan Carlos Vela is unable to play against his parent club and captain Chris Brunt is in doubt after he was sent home from training with a fever on Friday afternoon.

Arsenal have been dealt another injury blow ahead of the international break with the news that Abou Diaby has sustained a groin strain.

The midfielder is out of Saturday's trip to West Bromwich Albion and has pulled out of France's Euro 2012 qualifier against Luxembourg next week.

The club are hopeful, however, that Diaby's absence will be short term.

The Gunners are already without a host of first-team players, including Theo Walcott and Cesc Fabregas.

Johan Djourou, Thomas Vermaelen, Wojciech Szczesny, Alex Song and Lukasz Fabianski are also sidelined.

With the season entering the business end, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger will be anxious that his key players return to fitness soon as they pursue the Premier League title, their last chance of a first trophy since 2005.

Arsenal are only three points behind league leaders Manchester United and, with a game in hand, Wenger is confident his side can launch an assault on the title.

Wenger believes it is now a two-horse race between Arsenal and United.

"If we do not do it, it will be Manchester United because certainly the other teams are too far away," said the Frenchman.

"Unless Chelsea beats Manchester United and wins all their games, they might have a chance, but mathematically it is in our hands or Manchester United hands.

"The other teams can only come back if Arsenal or Man United do not take their opportunities, so it is down to our results.

"We are on a remarkably consistent run in the Premier League, have gone out in the Champions League in special circumstances, while at Old Trafford we could have got a result.

"We just want to keep belief high, togetherness high and give our best shot until the end of the season."