West Bromwich Albion 1 - Arsenal 1

Summary:

Premiership leaders Arsenal had to settle for a draw at the Hawthorns, and even had to earn that through a Jack Wilshere equaliser after Claudio Yacob's first goal for Albion had given them the lead shortly before half time. And even that equaliser relied on a little bit of luck after it took a massive deflection off Jonas Olsson to leave Boaz Myhill helpless.

The result means Albion have taken seven points from the last nine, a decent haul considering that Manchester United and Arsenal were two of them, and leaves them currently in twelfth place in the table.

oshawabaggie:

That's 3 hours of football in a week against two of the top teams and at no time have we looked out of place. In fact we were unlucky not to take all the points again today. Our customary cautious start gave way to more adventure and it was a well deserved lead we took when Yacob's header found the back of the net from a superb cross from Amalfitano (who else?). I was pleased for Yacob (first Baggie goal), whose form has returned in the last couple of games.

We produced another solid defensive effort, but could not quite find the attacking flare we showed against Manure, despite having enough clear chances to have increased the lead. Berahino was unlucky in the first and Anelka wasteful in the second. I hate picking on Anelka but once again, even discounting his two glaring misses, I thought he was the weakest of our front men. My only criticism of SC was his delay in substituting him. Long was a big improvement, if only for his energy and enthusiasm. Little is said about Myhill, but he has been really steady since Foster went down.

With points in our last four games my early season jitters have subsided somewhat. Most of the new additions have undoubtedly improved the team, but the league looks like it will be really tight this year (only Palace and Sunderland struggling). Lets hope there is no letdown against the ugly potters.

Paul Gainham:

If you took off your rose tinted glasses, your Baggies Shirt and put your scarf to one side for a moment, what you would have saw yesterday IMO was an excellent game of Premier League football between two sides whose movement, passing and pace at times was of the highest quality. The beauty of this game to me was that we kept our approach from last week intact ? despite us handing possession to Arsenal at times ? we went at them and at times our play was excellent.

This was always going to be a much tougher encounter than ManU, Arsenal are simply a much better side at present, but ask yourself this, did Ozil or Sessegnon run this game? For most part, the former did not really hurt us, Sessegnon really took the game to them.

Overall a draw was a fair result ? Arsenal did put us under much more pressure than ManU which was expected, but we had a clear game plan that mostly worked really well and if we can beat ManU and look the equal of the EPL?s top side then we have found a structure and approach that works for us.

My plea to Clarke is do NOT change something that is working so well (apart from Anelka!)

Player Marks

• Myhill 9 Excellent display, could not do anything with Wilshere?s deflected shot
• Jones 9 Superb display of solid defending and marauding attacking at times
• McAuley 8 Solid and dependable as ever
• Olsson 8 He and McAuley kept Giroud mostly quiet
• Ridgewell 7 An improvement on ManU but still looks the weak link
• Mulumbu 9 Superb, energetic display from minute 1 to minute 94
• Yacob 8 Looked much better today, back to his earlier form, nice goal as well
• Sessegnon 8 When this guy has the ball at his feet he do es things others don?t
• Amalfitano 8 Another good display, some great balls in, most notably for Yacobs goal
• Anelka 6 The weak link, some good touches but overall play was slow and missed an absolute sitter
• Berahino 8 Got forward well, defended well, touch very good. Did not look out of place against the EPL?s top side.

Subs

• Morrison 8 Added some much needed energy and fight late on in the game
• Long 7 Should have come on much earlier
• Brunt 7 Slotted in well not enough time to really shine

Manager 8 Got the set up right again ? only criticism today was leaving Anelka on too long, should have changed him at HT

Bobby Hope:

I concur with Paul G's appraisal of the game and situation but would just emphasise that Ridgewell is a bit of a liability at this level - his pace is not there and I am glad they didn't put Gnarby on against him. Good lad, works hard etc. but I'm afraid not good enough against EPL class. And I would leave Anelka as an impact player for the last 20 or 30 minutes. Was a great player and a good pro but he is living on his past and I question his hunger. Anyway enough negative stuff.

Another very good performance and the boys worked very hard and matched Arsenal. Why we didn't get a pen for Koscielny on Long I will never know. Really like the fact that we have Mulumbu and Yacob back as they were with three attacking midfielders in front of them who don't mind getting back and defending well. Sess always looks dangerous as does Amalfitano. Saido will only get better and better. Long looked hungry and up for it. Well done lads and well done SC!