Sam rolls the Dyce and reaps reward for Albion

THERE was a key moment in West Brom’s excellent victory at Chelsea on Saturday that only the eagle-eyed Albion supporters will have spotted.

With Albion a goal down and two players struck down by injury, boss Sam Allardyce’s hand was forced.

Branislav Ivanovic had replaced fellow defender Dara O’Shea after he suffered an ankle problem, before the veteran Serb himself suffered a hamstring injury.

Lee Peltier, the remaining Albion defender on the bench, began to warm up and then stripped off his tracksuit when it became clear that Ivanovic couldn’t continue.

At that point, Allardyce intervened and decided that Albion would change things up. They were, after all, up against ten men at this stage after Thiago Silva’s sending off and were in need of further attacking impetus.

So Callum Robinson was introduced instead. What was born from that change was one of the best Albion attacking displays in recent memory, as Robinson, Matheus Pereira and Mbaye Diagne wreaked havoc on the Chelsea defence.

“I decided that the three centre halves which had worked extremely well from the start of the game was no longer capable of doing what we needed,” Allardyce explained.

“We thought about putting Pelts on as a centre-half and then I decided that wasn’t the right thing to do.

“It was about going to a straight back four and putting a more attacking player on because we were taking the game to Chelsea for most of the game so I wanted to continue in that vain.

“Them going down to 10 men meant it would be even better for us to commit more men to attack than to defending.”

Pereira sent Albion into half-time in front after two quick-fire goals in first-half injury time.

But Robinson really pulled the Baggies clear with a fine finish when he sweetly met Darnell Furlong’s pull-back.

The Irishman then finished things off in stoppage time when he beat the offside trap and dinked Edouard Mendy to claim Albion’s fifth goal of the afternoon.

It was the first we’d seen of Robinson since the dark evening in February when Albion were undone by his former club, Sheffield United.

In that time he’d only found minutes in the Under-23s, or on international duty with Ireland.

He is back with a bang in Albion’s first-team, though.

“Probably the good thing for him was that he went away and played a couple of games for his international team,” Allardyce said of Robinson. “He had been a bit short of games because he hadn’t been involved as much as he would have liked, but what we saw Saturday was what we haven’t seen since we’ve been here. “That’s the quality of his finishing. “If he can maintain the quality of finishing he maintains a place in the team, there’s no doubt about that.

“That’s what he was brought in for, to score goals.

“And the quality of his goals showed he does have the ability to produce that type of finishing in the Premier League.

“I’m absolutely delighted for him to be challenging the rest of the players for a place in the side.”

The West Brom dressing room ought to be flying for the visit of Southampton next Monday, Allardyce has reasoned.

There is much work to do, though, if Albion can even think about remaining in the top flight and following that win up when the Saints visit is a must. They’ve set the standard now, however.