PREMIER LEAGUE
ARSENE WENGER admitted he was in the worst run of his Arsenal career – and claimed the Gunners are now facing a fight to stop their season collapsing.
The Frenchman watched a gutless show from his side, who slipped to their fifth defeat in their last seven outings, on a black afternoon at the Hawthorns.
Set against a backdrop of yet more supporter unrest and an injury to star man Al Alexis iS Sanchez, hW Wenger’s’ sideid went down with a whimper as two headed goals from Baggies’ defender Craig Dawson exposed their shortcomings.
It is the worst sequence of results since March 1995, when Arsenal, then under manager Stewart Houston, lost six out of seven matches.
Wenger said: “We are in a unique bad patch that we haven’t experienced in 20 years. At the moment, we are losing game after game.
“We have a big fight and it will be difficult now. There’s no other way than fighting, and to do it until the lastl game of fh the season. If that’sh ’ not good enough, we will have to take the consequences.
“One day, if we don’t get into the top four, then people can mock us.”
Wenger is proud of having reached European f ootball’s premier competition for 18 consecutive seasons, but is now in danger of slipping out of the top six as his campaign threatens to implode.
Tony Pulis’s Baggies won every battle going on the pitch and deservedly took the spoils.
There was again significant unrest among the travelling support. Two planesl with ihb banners b behindhi d themh – one in support of Wenger, the other against – flew over the Black Country stadium.
At the final whistle there were around 10 banners calling for the Frenchman’s head held up by travelling supporters.
The Gunners boss claimed to have missed them, but could not fail to see a display that was panned afterwards by the pundits.
Wenger ( right) said: “It was a typical Premier League game. One team has a lot of possession, the other one sits deep and counter attacks. We