WELBECK LIFTS ARSENAL BUT FANS STILL GIVE WENGER A HARD TIME
Unhappy fans fume at both managers
ARSENE WENGER has enough problems of his own, but spare a thought for Alan Irvine, too.
The dark clouds that hovered over Arsenal are slowly drifting away.
Their second victory in four days, courtesy of Danny Welbeck’s winner at The Hawthorns yesterday, eased the pressure on Wenger.
There was no such luck for West Brom manager Irvine, though, his own supporters turning against him as they suffered a fourth defeat in five games.
Boos and cries of ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ echoed around the ground when Irvine decided to replace Stephane Sessegnon with Georgios Samaras with 14 minutes remaining.
‘It’s not nice to hear, obviously, but people have their own opinions,’ said Irvine.
‘The changes nearly worked, we looked as if we might score when we didn’t look like scoring prior to the changes.
‘Had we done, maybe people would have a different judgement.’
While two consecutive wins have eased Arsenal’s anxieties, Wenger isn’t out of the woods; at least not with a section of the club’s support.
Even as they celebrated victory, fans made their feeling towards Wenger crystal clear.
One banner read: ‘Arsene, thanks for the memories but it’s time to say goodbye’, emblazoned across it, while another read: ‘Enough is enough, Wenger out.’
‘I don’t want to comment on that,’ said the Arsenal manager.
‘I try to do my best for the club that I love. We are very united with the players and staff around the team, that’s all you can do.’
Despite the growing sea-change in opinion from those who used to worship him, Wenger returned to Lon- don last night with renewed optimism as his side recorded their first League win since November 1.
He also has key players returning and was able to pick his preferred defensive partnership of Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny, the France international fully-recovered from an Achilles problem for his first appearance in two months.
Olivier Giroud made his first start since the end of August, though keeper Wojciech Szczesny again missed out with a hip injury as third choice Damien Martinez made his second consecutive start.
Following Wednesday’s moraleboosting win over Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal started brightly– Santi Cazorla and Alexis Sanchez testing Ben Foster with long-range efforts inside the first 10 minutes.
Foster was called upon again in the 25th minute stopping Welbeck fol- lowing Aaron Ramsey’s through ball, before the Gunners were denied a penalty after Giroud was felled by Youssouf Mulumbu.
Giroud let Foster off the hook failing to score into an empty net from a tight angle after the keeper had gone walkabout, before Cazorla fired straight at the Baggies keeper from the edge of the area.
Arsenal were well on top at the break. But Wenger, of course, had seen this all before.
Not turning dominance into goals is becoming an unwanted Arsenal trait and they continued to waste chances; with Ramsey the culprit this time, firing wide from 16 yards after Mulumbu lost possession.
They could easily have paid a heavy price for their wastefulness just after the break as Saido Berahino looked to have sprung Arsenal’s offside trap – only to be flagged. A decision that television replays proved to be wrong.
Then, in the 54th minute, came West Brom’s best opening, Berahino again beating Arsenal’s backline only to shoot into the side-netting.
It wasn’t the finish the striker was looking for in front of onlooking England manager Roy Hodgson.
Nor was it the finish Irvine wanted, and five minutes later, West Brom paid the price as Cazorla sped past Andre Wisdom down the left before standing up an inch-perfect cross for Welbeck to head past Foster.
West Brom fans were frustrated, directing their anger at Irvine in the 76th minute, showing their displeasure at his decision to replace Sessegnon with Samaras very clear.
But 10 minutes from the end those jeers nearly turned to cheers after Berahino hit the crossbar with a towering header from substitute Cristian Gamboa’s cross before Craig Gardner smashed a 20-yard effort narrowly wide in the final minute as Arsenal held on for all three points.