Team in all red did not always look as if they were Arsenal
WHEN Arsene Wenger eventually leaves Arsenal, he will not miss afternoons like this. Over the second half of his long tenure, there have been far too many days when he has travelled home with disappointment and frustration stinging his eyes.
This had been a hard, honest afternoon for Arsenal in the Black Country. With Christmas tiredness in their legs, Wenger’s players had run hard in the rain on the soft ground to finally edge past opposition ambitious and energised under new manager Alan Pardew.
With just seven minutes left, Arsenal scored. It was debatable whether or not they deserved the lead but they took it anyway.
Alexis Sanchez — largely peripheral until Arsenal came strong in the last quarter — drove a low free-kick at an encroaching West Brom wall and the ball ricocheted past Ben Foster off the back of James McClean, who had turned away as he jumped.
The celebrations were enthusiastic and prolonged. Unlike at Crystal Palace recently, all the Arsenal players joined in. It felt like a big moment for a side chasing the top four and preparing for a home game with Chelsea on Wednesday.
But there are certain things about Arsenal that do not change and one of them is the sheer painful fact that Wenger just can’t rely on his players.
Here, Arsenal were certainly unlucky. The handball given against Calum Chambers with two minutes left was a harsh call. Interestingly, the West Brom player involved in the incident — former Arsenal defender Kieran Gibbs — appealed only for a corner as the ball bounced off Chambers’ arm.
That was telling but undoubtedly there are some Premier League referees who would have made the same call as Mike Dean. Chambers’ arm was raised in front of him and he also made a slight, involuntary movement towards the ball. So maybe it is the rule that needs changing and not, as Wenger appeared to insinuate, the referees who enforce them. It is also worth mentioning here that Wenger was not so outspoken after his team were awarded a debatable penalty at Burnley recently.
And what is very clear and beyond debate is that Arsenal’s record away from home this season is not good enough.
Once West Brom’s Jay Rodriguez had driven in his team’s penalty to earn the draw, Arsenal could reflect on the fact that they have won just three times away in the league. On away form, Arsenal are currently ninth, behind teams such as Watford and Burnley and only just ahead of Newcastle, Brighton and Bournemouth.
So that is the kind of fact that continues to undermine Wenger’s desperate efforts to move Arsenal forward. This was a competitive game from the first moment to last. It was not always pretty and it was easy to sympathise with both managers when they spoke about the difficulties presented by the holiday scheduling.
This is a time of year when football is about those who watch it and not those who play it. For a time at the Hawthorns it was a puzzle who, if anybody, was benefiting from a New Year’s Eve game low on consistent quality.
But West Brom were backed by a vocal home crowd who recognised both the effort and the slight change of style that has come with Pardew’s appointment.
Matt Phillips was a threat down the right for the home side and Rodriguez a decent target in the middle. A header from the West Brom forward was saved early by Petr Cech and at the other end Alexandre Lacazette had a shot deflected wide and Alex Iwobi drove an effort narrowly over.
With creative players such as Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey missing, Arsenal lacked imagination at times but as the game wore on Lacazette, Sanchez and Jack Wilshere came to the fore. Foster saved from Lacazette on the hour and saw a toe-poke from the Frenchman spin wide of his near post.
The free-kick for Arsenal’s goal was carelessly conceded by Craig Dawson and the ball struck McClean as the wall encroached and then split. With only seven minutes to go, Arsenal seemed on the verge but if there is a cliff to jump over Wenger’s players will invariably find it.
Dressed in all red for the first time in almost 40 years, there were times when Arsenal were not very recognisable. There were other times, of course, when they were entirely so.