Gunners condemn Big Sam’s Baggies to Championship
WEST BROMWICH ALBION have been relegated from the Premier League for a fifth time after a defeat at Arsenal that keeps alive the Gunners’ slim hopes of qualifying for Europe.
Sam Allardyce’s side were already virtually down but their return to the Championship is now confirmed, with the Baggies sitting 10 points from safety with three games remaining.
Emile Smith Rowe volleyed a smart opener from Bukayo Saka’s cross in the 29th minute after Arsenal had stemmed the visitors’ promising start.
Nicolas Pepe made West Brom’s task even more difficult six minutes later when he cut in from the right and curled into the top corner to double
Arsenal’s lead.
Matheus Pereira gave the visitors hope, running from his own half to score a superb individual goal with 23 minutes remaining.
But it was not enough to stop West Brom suffering a joint-record fifth Premier League relegation, with Willian adding a late third for Arsenal from a freekick.
Victory means the Gunners, who were knocked out of the Europa League last week, do at least still have a mathematical chance of playing European football next term.
The fixture pitted two managers at contrasting ends of their coaching careers against each another but who are enduring similar periods of relative struggle.
For Allardyce, defeat at the Emirates confirms his first relegation from the Premier
League as a manager, although the experienced 66-year-old had all but accepted their fate before the match.
The division’s great escape artist replaced Slaven Bilic in December when the Baggies were 19th in the table and accepted the task of trying to guide them to survival.
Allardyce has previously kept Blackburn Rovers, Sunderland and Crystal Palace in the English top flight after taking control in similar circumstances, but the rescue mission at the Hawthorns proved too big with West Brom managing just four wins in the 22 League games he has overseen.
“It has been looking difficult for a while and we haven’t taken our chance to give ourselves a better opportunity of staying up,” Allardyce told BBC’s Match of
the
Day.
“I think these players should be fighting to stay out of it. They have performed well enough but our capabilities of scoring have deserted us.
“It is a disappointing night but we have to take it on the chin. It is not as painful for me as it is for the club or players.
“It is painful, I wanted it for the club and players more than me, but it hasn’t happened. Everyone has to accept it and recover quickly.”
Seventeen months into his managerial career, Arteta’s tenure in north London has come under the spotlight after a meek Europa League semifinal exit to Villarreal left the Gunners facing the prospect of no European football next season for the first time in 25 years.
A place in the Europa
League does remain an outside possibility with Arsenal sitting ninth, six points behind West Ham United in fifth and five behind Liverpool in sixth.
“We needed that win,” Arteta told BT Sport.
“It has been a while since we won at home. We scored three fantastic goals and we had some great spells in the game. When we conceded the goal we did look nervy.
“We knew the necessity to win the game. They scored out of nothing and then threw everything at you, they know the situation they are in and we struggled to play that kind of game. “We scored three fantastic goals but we missed some big chances too. “We have done so many right steps, some you can see and some you can’t. The foundations are there.” – Express Newspapers/ Agencies