West Bromwich Albion 0 - Arsenal 1

Date: Saturday 29th November 2014 
Competition: Barclays Premier League
WBA:
4.2
Foster 5.9, Wisdom 4.2, Dawson 5.9, Lescott 6.4, Pocognoli 5.8 (Gamboa, 74 5.1), Gardner 5.3, Mulumbu 4.8 (Anichebe, 64 5.0), Brunt 4.3, Dorrans 4.8, Sessegnon 5.9 (Samaras, 76 4.8), Berahino 5.1
Unused subs: Myhill, McAuley, Baird, Ideye
Manager: Alan Irvine 3.3
Arsenal:
5.6
Referee: Chris Foy (St Helens) 4.7
Attendance: 24,228   Home Fans 4.7   Away Fans 5.3

Mark Koppel:

A few facts from today's game:

  1. We have now failed to score a goal from open play for 5 games.
  2. We had zero attempts on goal in the whole of the first half, on or off target.
  3. In the whole 90 minutes we only had one deflected shot on target.
  4. We still decided not to play a £10million Striker.

After the Chelsea Capitulation I said Irvine needs to go if we don't win one of the next 3 games. Now make that two.

Having said this do you trust this Chairman to get it right next time? Don't forget this is the Chairman who appointed, and then had to sack, Robson, Di Matteo, Clarke, Pepe Mel, and now it will be Irvine.

  • Foster 6 - Good first half that helped to keep us in the game. Then he started to wobble in the second half. Should have showed stronger hands for their goal.
  • Wisdom 2 - Wisdom by name but not by nature. The bottle of champagne I will open when he blocks his first cross this season remains on chill. No where near to blocking out the cross for Arsenal's goal.
  • Dawson 6 - Not to blame for today's defeat. Much improved player from previous seasons. Isn't this the Defender we wanted to sell to Burnley ??
  • Lescott 7 - With Foster kept us in the game first half. Like Dawson not to blame for today's defeat.
  • Poco 5 - Does dive in and takes a chance with his slide tackles. Very brave but has stopped going forward in recent games.
  • Mulumbu 3 - Half the player he was, still looks fat, and keeps giving the ball away...
  • Brunt 4 - As against Chelsea, likely to achieve the MOTD 2 Award of worse free kick of the week. Biggest impact today was injuring Poco.
  • Berahino 6 - Our most likely player to score by a country mile. We would be bottom if it wasn't for him.
  • Sess 5 - Flapped about a bit but caused no threat to Arsenal.
  • Gardner 5 - Had our one shot on target, or was it a back pass?
  • Dorans 3 - Really weak in all challenges. Also didn't create anything either.
  • Subs 4 each
    Big Vic- No impact off the bench this time.
    Gamboa - Looked alright going forward. Really not sure about his defending abilities at this level. Kept out the Team by Wisdom, say no more.
    The Lazy Greek - Trotted about a bit just on the line near the Halfords Lane side so he wouldn't have far to walk off at the final whistle.

£10 Million Super Sub Striker - Obviously we must be saving him to rescue us later. Richard Garlick said recently, "West Brom know how to get value-for-money in the transfer market."
Do they ? Do they really ?

Future timetable:

  • Irvine out in 2 weeks time after failing to win two more games.
  • Chairman takes another 6 weeks to make an appointment.
  • Peace them decides to go for the cheapest 'Yes Man' he can find, and gives him no money to spend in January as the limited budget has already been wasted on Brown 'No' Ideye.

jen:

Just some random thoughts on todays game:-

First half I was BORED! The most exciting moments were Fosters abberations - what was he trying to do, on more than one occasion.

Foster again- no problems with him as a goalie but his distribution of the ball is awful. The big hoof up the middle to our huge centre forward, or out to the touchlines to our speedy wingers, don't work- maybe because we don't have either!

Mulumbu - why do we manage to turn good players into poor ones. He is a shadow of the player he was- today was good, bad & indifferent and certainly didn't look fit- or do I mean sharp?

Berahino- very, very disappointed in him. Not impressed today, would have kept on Sessegnon & taken him off. As for the driving incident - don't blame him for the speed thing, been there, done that, M69 in a Lotus was my preference - but I didn't drink at the same time. More important what was he doing at 4 am in the morning, midweek, when training is at 10am. He needs to decide whether he wants to be a professional athlete or not. Or end up as permanent potential - and getting nowhere.

Irvine- listened to his after match comments. "Thought we contained them well at the beginning". What is wrong with actually going at them & having a go!. Did we have a shot in the first half at all. Negative doesn't begin to describe him. Subs - I keep waiting for one of them to come on and actually make an impact, but it's just like waiting for the "Rosenberg moment" - it never happens.

Why not give Brown a go. We played 10 million pounds for him to wear the shirt & sit on a bench - I would do it for much less! Is he that bad? Where is Varela? Why not start with Gamboa?

We seem to rely on teams beneath us losing - that is not going to work forever - will be interesting if we lose on Tuesday.

One word of praise- Graham Dorrans is by no means the best player in the team - BUT - he always works to the best of his ability and puts in a shift. Well done to him.

Anyone agree?

Johno:

First half 50% possesion and no shot on goal. That says it all. I watched Saido very carefully for the first 15 minutes and his movement was very good and he made several decent runs. No once did we read his run. After that he gave up and I don't blame him - I would have done too.

We play far too pedestrian and never even look like making chances, let alone scoring.

Its time for sweeping changes. I suggest switching to a back three and two wing backs. Bring in Mac, and play Gamboa and Brunt as wing-backs. Probably Gardner and ? as holding mid-field, Giving Sess a fee role, and play big Vic up with Saido.

Didcot Baggie:

I agree with you Jen. And also with many of Mark Koppel's comments too. Bored? Yes. Frustrated too. Let's see some creativity for goodness sake! As last week the score line in no way reflected the gap in class between the two teams. If Chelsea were 20 times better than us, Arsenal were only a paltry 5 times better. If we had played for 900 minutes we would have never scored.

A few player thoughts:

  • Foster - Can't fault his saves and dealing with crosses, but distribution is often woeful. One reason our attacks never get started?
  • Wisdom - Not a tackler or cross blocker, or crosser. Presumably keeping Gamboa out of the team because he's a big lad and that is thought useful. Cost us the goal today and that can't go on.
  • Dawson - Has come on leaps and bounds this season - can't be blamed.
  • Lescott - Looked assured - must wonder what he's joined.
  • Poc - Needs to go forward more, but will miss him if he's out injured.
  • Mulumbu, Dorrans, Brunt, Gardner (doesn't matter if you substitute Yacob or Morrison here) - Can't fault the work rate and the one incisive pass in 50 that comes off, but for the most part there was not enough spark to create chances for Sess and Saido. Need Varela fit and playing or a coaching miracle to bring something new out of these stalwarts.
  • Sess - I was surprised people booed when he went off (although that was perhaps more in response to the introduction of the Samaras who once again did nothing but pass the ball safely backwards 10 yards). Sess is not the key to unlocking defences, unless he returns to running at defenders.
  • Saido - I think we are asking too much of him. Why not play him along side somebody he can feed off. I believe we have a £10M frontman somewhere. Got to try him unless Irvine knows he has a turkey.
  • Big Vic - Ideye must be a turkey then.

What about Alan Irvine? Well results against West Ham and QPR will probably decide his fate. He has to perform the coaching miracle I mentioned above - get some width, get some urgency, get some risk taking.

West Ham is a big game now, but they're up to 5th so will be a tough test. I hope we'll see Ideye turn out and turn out to be better than we all assume he is. Huge team performance and improvement needed.

Talyllyn Baggie:

We went the game expecting us to lose, so in one respect I wasn't disappointed.

You could see the difference in the teams in the way they counter attacked - they were fast & fluid - we were hesitant, then sideways & backwards.

The history books show that we are at best a mid table 1st division or high level 2nd division side, with occasional blips of highs and lows.

I thought Arsenal showed why they are a top 4 side (was very impressed with Cazorla) & to go in at nil nil at half time was a miracle.

We do our best, but it is evident it is not good enough against the best in this league.

By the way, Samaras never miss placed a pass and the one time he did give the ball away he worked back to get it back and did so.

Derby Bernie:

Could we have beaten Arsenal if we had tried to beat them? We'll never know - but it would have been nice to have tried.

When the home team just sit back with little (or no) desire to create chances(let alone convert one) it's time to find something more exciting to do on a Saturday afternoon (or dinnertime). I'm requesting knitting needles for Christmas!

Not sure whether Plan A or Plan B was more boring (neither was effective). Plan A (first hour) continually pass the ball sideways or (more often) backwards. This might have been worthwhile if it eventually led to an incisive through ball. Unfortunately when there was no-one further back to pass to, the hoof down field invariably found the giant german. BORING. During this period, only Sess had the skill (and confidence) to unsettle Arsenal by taking them on. By the way, I (like many others) booed the manager when Sess was substituted because I thought he was the most likely player to create chances.

A goal against always seems to remind Irvine that you are allowed to use subs. Arsenal score so we so try Plan B. Bring on the big guys and lump the ball up to them as often as possible; in the hope that the ball might drop kindly for us. Obviously you can increase the chances for the big guys by feeding the wingers to beat a man and pull the ball back to them. Sorry, we don't have orthodox wingers - oh well, go back to lumping it boys. BORING.

Finally, how can a club of our size afford to spend £10m on a striker and never play him? I hope the decision to waste that kind of money does not trigger the terminal decline of our club. Anyway, whose decision was it? Obviously not the manager's - he's never rated him.

Brendan Clegg:

A lot of angry and frustrated fans out there with lots of justification and there are plenty of points being made by others here and in the stands that most Albion fans agree with.

We've not even been in the last 3 games really - today included apart from a panic rally at the end. And the victories against Spurs and Leicester were fortuitous - we're lucky to have as many points as we have.

Slow, no width, no creativity, ponderous, giving the ball away cheaply, reactive, no plan b, persisting with players and systems that are not working, poor squad selections, baffling substitutions. It's all there for everyone to see.

And after a brief period where we seemed to be improving we are now going backwards. If we don't win 2 out of the next 3 games where does that leave us? In big trouble, hoping like last year there are 3 teams even worse than us.

And Irvine isn't helping himself - If Varela is anywhere near fit he should be in the squad and be getting minutes to get fitter.

Taking off Mulumbu and moving Brunt into the centre was another stupid decision - Mulumbu needs games to find his best form as our best midfielder. You don't become a bad player overnight but fitness, sharpness and confidence require faith fromt he manager and competitive games.

Brunt arguably should not be in the team anyway - God knows he's had as many if not more awful games than Mulumbu this year and over the last 3 years for sure and he simply cannot compete in the centre at this level.

Once again Poc went off injured and Brunt was the candidate to play left back but we moved 2 more players out of position.

And taking Sess off - do me a favour. I heard his interview after the game and I think he might actually be deluded. If he was so desperate to get Samras on, bring off Dorrans or Brunt and put Sess on the wing. Sess was our only attacking threat and release for 70 minutes. Personally I'd be starting him on the wing and dropping Brunt (how long must it go on) or Dorrans, or anyone else in the midfield frankly.

Any other team in the league playing Arsenal in an early Saturday kick-off after they play in Europe would be starting with a high tempo, high physicality and pacey approach. We just played into their hands.

I don't like the idea of changing manager so soon but Peace should seriously be looking at alternatives as I see nothing that inspires me that we're going to improve and whilst we may not have the strongest squad in the league I do think we are a bit stronger than last year and have the players to better than we are.

  • Foster - 7 Some great saves mixed with some silliness he needs to cut-out, and clearly pumping it long under instruction.
  • Wisdom - 5 Had a tough game and at his age this dip was always coming. Time to give Gamboa a run of games. I still think Wisdom has done Ok for and from a defensive perspective his strength, height and tackling have helped us. He's not been helped by the lack of options directly in front of him and it's unfair to keep playing him at left back or judging him on his performances there.
  • Dawson - 6 Defensively, no question he has improved with games but too many times on the ball he just isn't good enough and I don't think he ever will be. I'd be drafting in G-Mac for a run of games now.
  • Lescott - 7 Miles ahead as our best outfield player at the moment.
  • Poc - 6 I think he's been a great buy but seems to get injured every game which is a worry. I'd argue he's not bombed on as much in the last few games due to the quality of the opposition but, FFS, it's the winger in front of him who should be doing that anyway.
  • Mulumbu - 5 Not at his best but nor were many others. I'd keep playing him because his best level is higher than our other midfielders can reach and his performances over the last few years merit it.
  • Gardner - 5 As always puts a shift in and keeps going but is he really any better than Dorrans (better technically and more creative) or Morrison (quicker, better dribbler) in this role? I'm going to be honest and say I don't think so. Great pro and probably offers more bite in the tackle than the two aforementioned but I'm not sure he's warranting his guaranteed start.
  • Dorrans - 5 In fairness he absolutely ran himself into the ground which is more than can be said of others but does not have the pace to play wide against the top half in this league and so ends up drifting about and passing the ball sideways.
  • Brunt - 4 Our best run of form over the last 2 years was when he was injured. It's nothing personal but he wasn't good enough when we had a younger fit JT instead of him 3/4 years ago and he isn't now. Has to be dropped.
  • Sess - 6 Offered moments of invention and respite but often left so isolated even when he beat 1 or 2 players there was nothing on. Taking him off was ridiculous.
  • Berahino - 5 Be honest, 3 nothing games on the spin. Surely Ideye has been worth 20 minute cameos in these games?

Subs

  • Gamboa - 6 Again showed good pace but unconvincing defensively.
  • Anichebe - 6 I thought he'd get a start to try and bully the notoriously bullyable Arsenal back 4. Won his fair share of flicks and knock-downs when he came on.
  • Samaras - 6 5 Did OK without actually looking a threat.

Currently I'm taking comfort that there isn't anything in the teams from 12th downwards and if we somehow contrive to win another 6/7 games this year we'll survive but even now winning those games from the 25 remaining looks a bit daunting. Have to get a result against West Ham.

Pete Cottrell:

It wasn't that they played that badly; it's just that they hadn't a clue how to create openings, which (believe it or not) is what is needed to score goals. That's four games without scoring (unless you count the one that Leicester scored for us) and it's difficult to see where the goals are going to come from. The biggest (only?) cheer from the Albion fans came when Gardner had the first shot on target after 75 mins, following no shots at all (despite 50-50 possession) in a very boring first half.

Brunt, Dorrans, Morrison (ill yesterday) and Mulumbu all try hard, but you have to remember that they are past their peak and were all second division players no so long ago. Where is the creativity? Gardner shows a bit, but he was having to bail out Mulumbu much of the time so was playing in a more defensive role, and Sess was at least prepared to take on the opponents, but got little service. Wisdom, Brunt, Dorrans, Gamboa all started to get forward at times, but inevitably played the ball backwards rather than trying to reach the by-line or beat the last man. They looked sharper once Anichebe came on for Mulumbu, but that was only really owing to route one methods, and the only two genuine goal efforts came in this period.

Ratings:

  • Foster: 5. Predictable, and often poor, kicking. Tried to dribble past Giroud - with nearly disastrous results.
  • Wisdom: 4. At fault for goal (although, to be fair, Cazorla was in brilliant form) and the worst one for turning attacking moves into a pass-back to the half way line.
  • Dawson: 6. Steady game. One of this season's successes.
  • Lescott: 6. Steady game. One of this season's successful purchases.
  • Pocognoli: 7. Some shuddering tackles and was one of the only outlets forward. Just shades MoM over.
  • Gardner: 7. Got involved in most things in both attack and defence.
  • Mulumbu: 5. A shadow of his former self.
  • Brunt: 6. Can't fault him for effort, but like the rest of the veterans he isn't sharp enough for decent Premier league opposition.
  • Dorrans: 5. Much the same as Brunt, and is developing the Jonathan Greening impersonation of a dog twisting round 360 degrees before passing the ball (or settling down to sleep, if you are a dog)
  • Sessegnon: 6. Only one regularly to try to take on the opposition, but not always successful.
  • Berahino: 5. Not much influence. Unlucky to be pulled up for a dodgy offside when he would have been one-on-one.

Subs:

  • Anichebe: 6. Promising
  • Gamboa: 5. Disappointing
  • Samaras: 5. Out of position.

No Ideye why he wasn't given the nod ahead of Giorgos. I have a theory that he paid his own transfer fee just to get out of war-torn Ukraine.

Huge boos for Irvine when he took Sess off (Berahino should have gone) and chants of "You don't know what you're doing".

It's possible, if unlikely, that we will be bottom by Wed night, but really we need 8 points from the next four matches (Hammers on Tues, followed by three teams below the Albion in the table) otherwise I could see Irvine going the same way as Clarke, and Albion fighting it out with Rotherham and MK Dons next season.

Kev Buckley:

I read the first two reports I had seen of the game, Mark Koppel's and Jenny's, before seeing the game as an as live reply on the Arsenal TV channel and have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw, given the tone of their reports.

I'd agree about the lack of creativity from Brunt, Sessegnon and Dorrans, whilst noting that they all worked hard in getting behind the ball: just a shame that they didn't have the nous, or the desire, or perhaps the tactical instructions, to get close to Berahino, who despite all the hype, is obviously not a Lee Hughes, or even a Shane Long, who we can, as we often seem to do, lump it up to.

Berahino was onside when clean through and if the linesman gets that right then we are 1-0 up.

As for individual players, Mulumbu got a lot of stick but apart from one episode in our box where he ran into trouble when trying to avoid hoofing it, I thought he had a much better game than Gardener, who seemed invisible, well until we'd decided that shooting from distance and sending the goalie up in open play was an option.

Unless Mulumbu was unfit them why he needed to be replaced by Anichebe, is beyond me, as it moved Berahino out to the left, just so that the captain could stay on the pitch and deliver the inch perfect passes from a holding midfield role, the exception that proves the rule being an awful free kick from the left back area that didn't even make the box.

I'm not sure what Samaras has to do to get any acceptance at the Albion. He was asked to play wide on the left, which he's not very good at and yet put in two better crosses than our captain managed, one of which we might have got an equaliser from.

By the way, did anyone else recognise our 2nd half kick-off tactic as the same unfruitful one as we used against Chelsea?

The sooner we see some of the new faces the better.

Finally, I read, in Mark Koppel's player marks:

"Wisdom 2 - Wisdom by name but not by nature. The bottle of champagne I will open when he blocks his first cross this season remains on chill. No where near to blocking out the cross for Arsenal's goal."

Whilst I agree with Mark, in that, in keeping with many in our squad, Wisdom doesn't look like a full back yet seems condemned to being played there, I believe that Mark should have cracked open that champagne on 57 minutes, when Wisdom's arse clearly got in the way of an attempted cross, from out by the corner flag - a champagne moment if ever there was one!

Another demon laid to rest - let's hope Andre can push on from getting that monkey off his back. Then again, maybe we could play a full back, Gamboa, at full back and put Wisdom on the bench as cover for the centre backs.

It'll be interesting to hear from the manager whether the performances of the regular starters will be enough to keep them in the team for the next game or whether it is time to give someone else a chance, just to see how they go.