West Bromwich Albion 1 - Arsenal 2

Summary:

Albion suffered another defeat as they went 2-0 down at home to Arsenal before the game became interesting. Shane Long was preferred to Romelu Lukaku alone up front, and Peter Odemwingie was absent altogether leaving space on the bench for Isaiah Brown to have a chance of a debut appearance.

Despite having the better of the opening exchanges, Albion fell behind in the 20th minute when Tomas Rosicky headed home after Gervinho had turned Gareth McAuley with ease.

Albion looked lacking in ideas for much of the game, although they saw a good first half chance cleared off the line, and Rosicky's second goal, five minutes after the restart, left Steve Clarke with no option but to make changes, although he appeared to be waiting to see if McAuley was fit to carry on after needing treatment in the opposition box before bringing on Lukaku and Markus Rosenberg. Albion started to look more promising, and with 20 minutes left a run into the box by Shane Long was ended by a trip from Per Mertesacker and Howard Webb showed him the red card and pointed to the spot, James Morrison doing the honours to pull one back.

Albion continued to press their visitors, although at times too casually for their own good, but Arsenal brought on enough defensive reinforcements to hold out for the win.

Kev Buckley:

Last 20-min bombardment doesn't out-gun 10-man Gunners

Have to say that the double substitution confused me, in that not only did Long not get pulled off but that it also happened at the sixty minute mark and not on the seventy - so much for "Clarke's plan"!

Joking aside, very surprised by the withdrawl of Thomas, who had been getting much further forward than many of his predecessors in the wide-in-the-three roles, as well as getting crosses in, albeit for the aerial threat of Long and Morrison, at the point where we brought on two players who would give us a bit of height.

Despite a much brighter start than in many of the recent games, with the aforementioned Thomas much to the fore, Clarke must have been unhappy about the goals conceded, as, for the first, Rosicky seemed to arrive on the edge of the six-yard box completely untracked as he ran from outside the eighteen-yard box, stooping to meet Gervinho's stabbed cross, whilst for the second, we gave the ball away in the Arsenal half and, three or four slick passes later, saw the same player covert the breakout at the second time of asking, after Foster's parry of Rosicky's first drive fell into an area with no defender close enough to impede a second attempt.

As it turned out, JT's crossing from deep probably wasn't missed in the last twenty minutes, as the red card and converted, OK, make that "just about converted", penalty, had seen the tactics change so that everyone, including goalkeeper Foster, striding out like a Beckenbauer over halfway at one point, looked to "stick it in the mixer".

That penalty had been awarded when a long ball forward had finally been decent enough to see Long to get in behind Mertersacker, resulting in the latter bringing the former down a stride before Long would have got off a shot from just inside the area. Clear goal-scoring opportunity no complaints from the opposition and very much game on.

Not clear why Lukaku did not start, given that he put in a good shift all across the line after coming on, so presumably wasn't omitted from the starting XI through injury. Rosenberg, the other half of the double substitution that saw the other wide starter, Dorrans, taken off, didn't appear to get into the game much but then within ten minutes of coming on, the game became a lot less structured.

If Clarke felt any disappointment around the goals conceded, then it may have been equalled by the fact that we didn't get enough of the chances that our bombardment in that last twenty minutes created on the target and so come closer to nicking the draw that our extra man ascendency in that period suggested we might. As it was, we didn't and Arsenal's two goal start proved to be enough to give them the win.

Bobby Hope:

Well last week I said believe in Steve but I think he got it wrong yesterday. I am not sure why Lukaku didn't start but he should have done. The formation didn't work and we gave Arsenal too much respect. The midfield was all over the shop. At times Yacob was pressing their defence with Long. Brunt just can't defend effectively and Morrison only came into the game with any effect after the substitutions when we looked better - great ball by him to Long for the penalty.

I would not have played Thomas and I would have put Lukaku up front with Long. Poor old Longy did his usual shift, ran his bollocks off with very ittle support - glad he got us the penalty.

We gave the ball away so many times and passing was not up to the usual, or even acceptable, standard - Olsson's passing was abysmal at times! Yacob watched Rosicky run past him for the second and generally, for the first time, looked out of position a lot of the time. Was it he and Brunt holding with Thomas left, Morrison middle and Dorrans right? It looked that way in the first five minutes and then it went pear shaped (not literally of course!).

So wrong team choice and wrong formation in my opinion. Far too much respect, too timid and not enough confidence and drive. I think SC thinks of employing the 'Anfield tactic' against all decent teams - hold them for as long as you can and late in the game try and nick a winner (or two in the case of Anfield!). Why not play two up front and have a go from the start? Too scared of losing? Lukaku (especially with Long) is a big handful, Long on his own, without any support is not.

For the last twenty Arsenal looked vulnerable but we were unable to cash in with Lukaku having the best chance and McAuley mis directing a fantastic, aggressive header at the far post.

I think we will finish the season on record points so it can't be a bad effort can it? And we are still eighth which, when you consider our budget, is a great performance.

My big concern now is what do we do when Lukaku goes? We do not have a striker capable of getting into double figures in the Prem.

Anyway enough of my negativity and onwards and upwards! COYB!