WEST BROM 1 ARSENAL 3 FOR A team without a goal in six hours of Premier League football, it is difficult to imagine more accommodating opponents. Arsenal's support cleared their vocal chords for a rare rendition of Nicklas Bendtner's name, but they ought to have requested a fixture with West Bromwich Albion every week. Their challenge for a Champions League place enjoyed a tonic, as they tasted victory after five successive draws.
West Brom have the most porous defence in the top flight and how it showed. All of Arsenal’s goals owed much to slackness in the Albion backline, but Bendtner, greatly maligned of late, was not complaining as he scored his 10th and 11th goals of the season. And Kolo Toure notched his first.
The home fans had left in their droves long before full time, and the memory of their Great Escape from Premier League relegation in 2005 felt a long way away.
Arsenal, by contrast, have applied the pressure on fourth-placed Aston Villa ahead of their visit to Manchester City.
Wenger had made the point of praising Tony Mowbray in the build-up to this game for his adherence to footballing principles, which made seasoned watchers of the Frenchman smile.
As ever, he was keen to encourage the opposition to come out and play which, he hoped, would play into Arsenal’s hands.
An entertaining encounter appeared in prospect from the outset, with a high tempo about both teams, and a weight seemed to be lifted from Wenger’s shoulders as his side ended their goal drought almost immediately.
West Brom’s defending left an awful lot to be desired as Chris Brunt cleared Samir Nasri’s weak corner to Denilson on the edge of the area, who was stationed in yards of space. He rolled the ball casually out to the right for Bendtner, who had time to cut inside Ryan Donk and release a low, left-footed shot.
What it lacked in power, it made up for in accuracy and Scott Carson allowed it to trickle into the far corner of his net.
Wenger had to break up the William Gallas-Toure central defensive partnership that had kept six successive clean sheets in all competitions, owing to an injury to Gallas, and his team was breached shortly after their opening goal.
There was much to admire in the sweetness of Brunt’s low strike from a 25-yard free-kick, but also plenty to criticise about the arrangement of Arsenal’s defensive wall. The ball fizzed straight through it, between Alex Song and Emmanuel Eboue, and Manuel Almunia was slow to get down.
Form was not behind West Brom. They had entered the game with only one point from the previous available 15, but Mowbray noted that his team were better off in terms of points than Fulham at this stage of last season and Portsmouth in the season before that. Both survived. Albion will fight until the death. If they do go down, however, the inquest will not go much beyond their defence.
Toure’s first goal of the season brought a tangible sense of deflation. Luke Moore had flickered at the other end, but when Andrei Arshavin curled over a free-kick, the Ivorian brushed off Gianni Zuiverloon, continued his run and nodded home. Easy.
The same could be said of Bendtner’s second. Toure’s long ball over the top exposed Abdoulaye Meite. Bendtner’s touch was neat, his finish emphatic.
Guardian Service
WEST BROM:Carson, Zuiverloon, Meite, Donk, Robinson, Morrison (Menseguez 72), Greening, Koren, Brunt (Filipe Teixeira 72), Moore, Fortune. Subs not used: Kiely, Hoefkens, Cech, Kim, Borja Valero. Booked: Koren, Brunt, Meite, Donk.
ARSENAL:Almunia, Sagna, Toure (Diaby 46), Djourou, Clichy, Eboue (Ramsey 67), Song Billong, Denilson, Nasri (Merida 83), Bendtner, Arshavin. Subs not used: Fabianski, Van Persie, Vela, Gibbs.
Referee:S Tanner (Somerset).
