When Jack Wilshere scored Arsenal’s third goal after 17 minutes and ended any hopes West Bromwich Albion had of keeping this school’s-out spectacle competitive, the afternoon became an exercise in trying to read Arsène Wenger’s mind. He was giving nothing away. “I cannot tell you what I will do next weekend,” Wenger said.
If it sounded like Wenger was responding with a poker face to questions about his plans for the FA Cup final on Saturday, perhaps his answer invited deeper analysis. This 4-1 demolition of West Brom has given Wenger a couple of intriguing selection headaches for Wembley and the honest truth could be that Theo Walcott’s 33-minute hat-trick and Wilshere’s all-round excellence means that Arsenal’s lineup against Aston Villa will not be as easy to predict as it might have been a week ago.
Most prominent in Wenger’s thoughts will be whether Walcott or Olivier Giroud should be the focal point of Arsenal’s attack against Villa. That would not have been a debate two months ago, when Giroud was scoring so freely and Walcott was being criticised after suffering as a No10 in England’s friendly against Italy. However, the goals have dried up for Giroud in the past month and Walcott, granted a rare start in the middle, was outstanding.
Whereas Giroud is a target man whose game is based on hold-up play and intelligence in the area, Walcott is always on the shoulder of the last defender and West Brom could not handle his speed or movement. He could have had six goals on another day.
Like Walcott, Wilshere has struggled to play consistently because of injuries. He was exceptional on the right of Arsenal’s attack and Wenger will agonise over whether Wilshere should start instead of Aaron Ramsey at Wembley. Ramsey came on in the second half and almost scored three times, the overworked Boaz Myhill tipping one of his efforts on to the bar.
Victory for Arsenal sealed third place and ensured that they will not have to go through a play-off to qualify for the Champions League in August. West Brom were blown away by the speed, quality and relentlessness of Arsenal’s attacks and one breathtaking dummy from Wilshere, who swerved away from Claudio Yacob, captured the gulf in class between the sides.
Admittedly West Brom were obliging opponents and Tony Pulis shouldered the blame for not freshening his side up after last Monday’s 3-0 victory over Chelsea. At least Pulis could reflect on the respectability of finishing 13th.
Walcott began the rout in the fourth minute. Santi Cazorla threaded a pass through to him and he made light of a tight angle by thumping a stinging shot into the top-right corner from the right of the West Brom area.
Arsenal doubled their lead in the 14th minute. Although a one-two between Wilshere and Mesut Özil did not quite come off, the ball broke to Walcott after a tame tackle from Gareth McAuley and he danced past Jonas Olsson before stabbing a low shot past Myhill.
Arsenal were rampant and when Gabriel Paulista set up Wilshere three minutes later, his left-footed shot from 20 yards was past Myhill in flash.
Wilshere was also the brains behind the goal that sealed Walcott’s hat-trick. There was a one-two with Alexis Sánchez, followed by a cute dink to Cazorla, whose wayward shot was tapped in at the far post by Walcott.
Another boost for Arsenal was a late cameo from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has been out for the past two months with a groin injury, with the only disappointment being their failure to keep a clean sheet.
David Ospina, a capable goalkeeper but not entirely convincing as Arsenal’s No1, got nowhere near Chris Brunt’s corner and McAuley headed in a consolation goal for West Brom after 57 minutes.
Ospina later flapped a shot from Craig Gardner on to the bar. There is always room for improvement.
Man of the match Theo Walcott (Arsenal)
