What an afternoon for the Baggies. No one but no one expected them to travel to Arsenal’s fortress and come away with the three points.
This wasn’t a lucky win either, it was one where there was a plan and it was stuck to and it worked perfectly. Rookie head coach Roberto Di Matteo taught the master, Arsene Wenger a lesson.
The scoreline flattered Arsenal because they were out thought out fought and out played, the Baggies were worthy of the three nil that they had. It could have been even better for the Baggies if Chris Brunt had managed to convert the penalty earned by Peter Odemwingie’s darting run that saw him brought down by Almunia who was perhaps lucky to stay on the pitch. Instead Almunia saved the penalty but that is as good as it got for him. Whilst the Arsenal keeper couldn’t be faulted for West Brom’s first, his defence were at fault for that one, he was culpable for Albion’s second and Jara’s first for the club and the third was again the fault of his defence who left several Albion players unmarked but it was eventually Thomas who had put the ball in the net after some great work from Chris Brunt. Thomas had earlier set up Peter Odemwingie’s third goal in five games by completely foxing French international Bacary Sagna who will no doubt be glad that he doesn’t have to face Thomas every week.
The Gunners made the scoreline look respectable by scoring two late goals through Samir Nasri but despite their possession and shots on goal they never really looked like drawing or winning the game and their team, fans and coaching staff would surely agree that it would have been a travesty if Albion didn’t walk away with all three points.
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