Well, that was quite a game. Arsenal went ahead, looked in complete control, but then conceded two soft goals and left themselves too much to do. They were a bit unlucky to lose: Ozil hit the post, Campbell missed an open goal and Cazorla wasted a late penalty, but they defended like amateurs. West Brom showed spunk and determination, and defended really doggedly in that second half, and earned a famous victory. Tony Pulis will be cock-a-hoop; Arsenal Wenger will be full of fume. Thanks for reading. Bye!
Full-time: West Brom 2-1 Arsenal
Arsenal beaten! And Leicester City are top of the league!
90 min+ 4: Koscielny is thrown forward, and it falls to him in the box, but his shot is straight at Myhill! Seconds left.
90 min + 3: Great play from Alexis to feed Bellerin, and he has two chances to cross, and they’re both rubbish. Bof.
90 min + 2: West Brom throw in the corner. Arsenal need to get it forward. Free kick in the centre circle.
90 min + 1: Flamini fires it across and Campbell is close to getting on the end of it! That looked like a corner, but the ref said goal kick, and Myhill is booked for time wasting.
90 min: Monreal’s ball in from the byline, and Olsson does just enough to stop Giroud getting on the end of it. We’re just looking at the penalty miss again – you have to try and see it. Like John Terry in Moscow in 2008.
Four added minutes. Still time for the Arsenal!
89 min: Serious Arsenal pressure here, but Gardner surges forward and wins a throw in Arsenal’s right-back area. Vital seconds being eaten up here.
88 min: Ozil’s cross is taken cleanly by Myhill. Another really poor corner.
87 min: Ooh, Campbell was nearly in from Cazorla’s clever pass, but Brunt came in and conceded the corner.
86 min: Arsenal are really pressing here. Albion are deep in defence.
Well, how about that. Cazorla stepped up, looked confident, but his standing leg slipped from beneath him, and it squirted miles over the bar. Wenger can’t believe it.
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PENALTY MISS! Cazorla 84
Oh my lord!
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Yellow for Brunt. That’s a great decision by Mark Clattenburg. It was a clear hold on the shirt. Can Cazorla draw Arsenal level? Nerves!
Penalty to Arsenal!
Brunt for holding Alexis!
82 min: Wenger looks seriously pissed on the touchline. His team are a bit unlucky to be behind here, but they haven’t shown what they’re capable of.
81 min: I know their goal came from a set piece, but Arsenal’s crossing has been really substandard today. Cazorla had a great chance to put the ball in there, but it was easily cleared by West Brom.
79 min: Ten minutes for Arsenal to come back, otherwise Leicester City are going top of the league. They just can’t break down this West Brom defence.
77 min: Rickie Lambert on for James Morrison. The striker comes in, but I think Albion just want to hold what they have.
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75 min: Alexis is almost in there, but he can’t quite reach Bellerin’s cross. Arsenal knocking at the door!
74 min: Arsenal still plugging away, but West Brom have erected a striped wall on the edge of their box. I should have mentioned earlier than Berahino is on for Rondon, and it was Olsson who had the header off the bar. It was the right call – it didn’t go over.
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71 min: Careless from Koscielny, and he concedes a needless corner. Oh, and how did that stay out? Unreal! Brunt’s delivery was headed on to the bar by Rondon (was it?) and it bounced down, but not over the line! So unlucky for the home side.
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70 min: This second half has been played almost entirely in Albion territory. Arsenal have had almost all the ball, but West Brom aren’t going to give this up easily. The visitors should be level, though – that Campbell miss was a shocker.
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69 min: Oh, what a chance for Campbell! That was extraordinary. Cazorla put the ball in, McClean slipped, and Campbell was totally free at the back post six yards out – but he put it wide! He just didn’t connect properly. What an opportunity.
67 min: Alexis, who’s been Arsenal’s premier performer, does brilliantly to win a corner, but Ozil’s ball in is cleared by Rondon. The crossing from corners today has been terrible.
66 min: Rondon just runs the ball out of play, which is unfortunate, because Mertesacker was moving like an anvil, and Rondon could have isolated him one-on-one.
64 min: Albion do defend very tenaciously when they get men behind the ball. They’re blocking off the passing angles. But can they hold out for another half-hour?
63 min: Final change for Arsenal: Campbell in for Gibbs, who I think found it difficult playing in a role he’s not used to.
62 min: Anxious moment from Cech as Rondon closed him down, and he’s happy to just hammer it out of play. Arsenal’s defending today has been dozy.
60 min: Change for the Baggies: Gardner in for Sessegnon, who has been a minor character in this drama.
59 min: Now Arsenal break, and Alexis looks to run at the Albion defence. And what a through-ball that is from Ozil – Flamini is in, but that’s a great tackle from Evans! The corner is wasted, but there were two excellent pieces of play just now – Ozil’s pass, which beat about four defenders, and Evans’s tackle, which was timed perfectly. Top soccer.
58 min: Arsenal clear the first ball, but Albion just whack it back in, and no one tracked Morrison, and he was nearly in! Cech concedes the corner. Better from West Brom.
57 min: Brunt had space, and he put in a lovely deep cross that Mertesacker actually did well to cut out at the expense of a corner. Albion’s big lads come up from the back.
56 min: West Brom are really deep here, and they’re finding it difficult to get out. Ozil tries to cross from the left, but he’s hustled off it. Determined defending from the hosts.
54 min: Not quite sure what the problem was for Arteta, but it brings an end to one of the most chastening games the Spaniard has endured. Alexis, who’s been on his mettle all game, looks to explode in the box, but West Brom just above get it clear. Now Rondon with a chance – it sat up nicely, but his volley was high.
50 min: Arsenal have been utterly dominant in this first five minutes of the second half. West Brom can’t get out of their half. Just looking back at that penalty shout, Olsson was all over Giroud, and I know they’re rarely given, but basically Olsson wrestled the Frenchman to the ground. A lucky escape for the Swede.
48 min: West Brom couldn’t clear, Monreal crossed, and it fell free in the box – Ozil was first to react, and he shot for goal, but it came back off the post. Now another change! Arteta can’t continue, and Flamini is in. It’s all happening here.
47 min: Yacob fouls Alexis. That’s not like him! Decent area for Arsenal, especially if West Brom decide not to mark Arsenal strikers. Ozil with it, inswinging, and Giroud went down in the box, but no penalty. No one really complained. And then that’s off the post from Ozil! So unlucky.
We're back!
46 min: Can the Gunners get back into it?
That was a rather challenging first period for Mikel Arteta, who replaced Francis Coquelin: he gave away the free kick from which West Brom scored, and then scored the own goal. I thought he was brilliant at Everton, but maybe Old Father Time has been wielding his scythe over the past couple of years.
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Half-time: West Brom 2-1 Arsenal
Albion on top! Good on them – they showed real determination to come back there. See you in 15.
45 min + 1: In from Ozil, but cleared by Albion. And that’s the half.
45 min: Gibbs, who’s been quiet, gets away from Dawson, surges into the box, but his cross can’t find an Arsenal shirt. It’s a corner, though.
42 min: Huge credit to West Brom. They looked glum after Arsenal opened the scoring, but to get back to 2-1: very impressive. McClean did so well for the goal, but it was ordinary defending again: Arsenal need to pick it up.
Yellow for Morrison for tugging back Alexis.
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41 min: Giroud is booked for a late foul. It’s all going south for Arsenal.
40 min: This is crazy! Rondon got hold of it on the left, completely on his own, but James McClean made a brilliant overlap. Rondon waited, fed McClean, who had run beyond, and McClean just fired it across the goal, where Arteta, running back, couldn’t stop it bobbling in off his knee. Game on!
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GOAL! West Brom 2-1 Arsenal (Arteta og 40)
Albion lead!
39 min: It’s a different game now, and Albion have perked up significantly.
38 min: That was bizarre: Arsenal looked so comfortable, but they totally failed to pick up Morrison, and all of a sudden they’ve been pegged back. Bad defending. George Graham wouldn’t have stood for it.
36 min: Well, that was almost a carbon copy of Arsenal’s goal, and it was similarly hopeless defending. Brunt swung it in, and Morrison beat Bellerin to it, and did very well to cushion a finish over Cech, who was off his line. From nowhere, Albion are level!
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GOAL! West Brom 1-1 Arsenal (Morrison 35)
Well, how about that!
34 min: West Brom have tried to amp it up since the goal, but they lack quality, don’t they? Rondon is game, and Sessegnon has pace, but they’re short of a clever passer who can create things from midfield. Bring back Robert Koren.
32 min: Sessegnon with it … straight into the wall. “That’s a miserable effort,” says Ian Crocker on commentary, and he’s right: it was hopeless.
31 min: Ooh, that was cynical from Bellerin. McLean leapt to beat Mertesacker, and Rondon was on to it, so Bellerin just hacked him from behind. Extremely crude, and that’s a yellow, plus a shooting chance.
29 min: That was a really bad goal to concede from West Brom’s point of view. Ozil’s ball in was accurate, but it was defendable, and yet Giroud wasn’t picked up properly. Tony Pulis will be seething in his baseball cap.
28 min: The visitors were just popping it around, and they won a free kick 30 yards out. Ozil just floated a ball in, and Giroud was free in the six-yard box, and he just flicked a header beyond Myhill. Another assist for Ozil, another goal for Giroud, but the marking was dreadful.
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GOAL! West Brom 0-1 Arsenal (Giroud 28)
Arsenal just asserting their authority, and that’s a goal!
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25 min: Brunt and McClean double up to hustle Alexis off it, but it’s behind for a corner. Cazorla’s ball in is poor, and Albion clear.
Here’s JR again: “Though he is now a far cry from his short-lived peak, in his pomp I think Cheick Tiote was among the best kickers of men.”
Cheick Tiote! Of course. I read somewhere that he’d picked up 25 yellow cards in his first 50 games with Newcastle. Is that true?
23 min: Arsenal work it nicely out to the right flank, and Bellerin crosses for Giroud, but Olsson, like my good friend Adam, is extremely tight, and it’s a out for a goal kick.
21 min: Arsenal look to go through the middle, but many Albion shirts are back, and they clear the danger. Alexis has looked sharp for the Gunners, incidentally.
18 min: Alexis with a lovely quick turn, but Ozil’s ball for Giroud is just underhit. Now West Brom come forward, and Dawson, who’s really a centre-back, slings in a cross from the flank – it’s easily cleared.
16 min: The Baggies have been decent so far, but they are reluctant to get bodies forward. Rondon is already rather isolated.
15 min: Alexis with the free kick … and Myhill did well to move his feet, get along the line, and catch it. Great save, all made by the footwork.
14 min: Sessegnon is late on Monreal on the edge of the box, and this is a good area for the Arsenal. Arteta is on for Coquelin, which should the visitors a bit more quality in possession.
13 min: Coquelin can’t continue. I guess it was a ligament problem, or a twist – if it was just a kick you sense he would have been able to run it off. Arteta is going to come on.
12 min: Coquelin is down: he went in hard on Yacob, who went in hard on Coquelin. The Premier League’s two foremost cloggers? I think Lee Cattermole might have something to say about that. Also James McCarthy.
9 min: Gibbs gets forward down the left, and he takes Cazorla’s crossfield pass beautifully, but Dawson does just enough to get a block in, and it’s safely through to the keeper.
8 min: McClean goes down the left, beats two, and fizzes a ball across the six-yard box, but no one was there for Albion! That was a chance.
7 min: Slowish start from the Arse, but they’ve been reasonably comfortable in possession. No attacks of note, though.
JR in Illinois says boing, boing, or something: “Hey Tim, oh boy! My baggies get their own MBM! What a world we live in. Now everyone can become acquainted with delights such as: Chris Brunt at left back, James McClean running in fantastically straight lines, and Claudio Yacob kicking people.
“West Brom have not given up one goal in a game all season. They’ve given up two and three goals a bunch of times though. 0-3 sounds about right for this one.”
5 min: Olsson’s ball in from the free kick, but Dawson is offside. Weirdly, West Brom have the leakiest defence at home in all the Premier League – four times they’ve conceded three goals in matches at The Hawthorns.
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3 min: Dawson looks long for Rondon, and Sessegnon latches on to the flick-on. Nothing comes of it, but you suspect West Brom might be doing a lot of that: go direct for Rondon, and hope Sessegnon can nibble away at the fringes.
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And we're off!
1 min: Arsenal get us under way. They’re in their reassuringly terrible gold-and-navy away strip.
Nice moment to mark the victims of the Paris attacks. Very nicely done.
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Man United won with an own goal in the last minute, the jammy gets. Read Jacob Steinberg’s match report here:
Not long till kick off. We’re about six minutes away.
Can Arsenal really win the title? They’ve been much improved this season, and they’ve finally got their first decent goalkeeper since Jens Lehmann, but they’ll still find it tough to edge Man City, I think. The quality in Man City’s squad is unreal – David Silva, de Bruyne, Touré, Otamendi, Agüero, etc etc – and great though Arsenal are, I think they’re an inferior side. But I’d love them to prove me wrong!
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Nick Miller is in charge of goals, goals, goals. Follow his clockwatch here:
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Last year, at about this time in the season, Arsenal beat West Brom 1-0 at the Hawthorns. The goal scored by … Danny Welbeck! Remember him?
Watford v Man Utd is coming to a climax. Follow it here:
So a couple of interesting personnel selections here: West Brom bring in Olsson for McAuley, who was red-carded against Man United, but leave Berahino on the bench. For Arsenal, Laurent Koscielny will play – Arsene Wenger worried whether he was emotionally able after the attacks on Paris – and Kieran Gibbs, fresh from his goal against Spurs, is in. But then so is Monreal! Arsene Wenger In Two Left-Backs Shocker! But I guess Gibbs will play slightly further forward.
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Your teams
West Brom: Myhill, Dawson, Olsson, Evans, Brunt, Yacob, Fletcher, Morrison, Sessegnon, McClean, Rondon. Subs: Chester, Gardner, Anichebe, Lambert, Berahino, McManaman, Lindegaard.
Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Cazorla, Coquelin, Sanchez, Ozil, Gibbs, Giroud. Subs: Debuchy, Gabriel, Arteta, Ospina, Flamini, Campbell, Reine-Adelaide.
Ref: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear)
Hello and welcome
The Premier League is back, and it feels good, doesn’t it? Arsenal play West Brom at The Hawthorns, England’s highest ground – and the Gooners are riding pretty high themselves. They’re second in the league, level on points with Man City, and a good result here can take them to the top, if only for a couple of hours. They’ve played this season with skill, finesse, and maybe a new-found hardness, thanks in no small part to the excellent Petr Cech: they’ve conceded just nine goals in 12 games this season, which, for a team oft criticised for their defensive flabbiness – is rather encouraging.
Plus, Mesut Ozil’s been brilliant, as we probably knew he always was: with 10 assists in 11 games, he’s been the most prolific provider in Europe’s top five leagues. What a player he is: along with David Silva, the best in the Premier League, in my lousy opinion.
For West Brom, they could do with a win, and some goals, but their home record has been poor: just one victory all season. I watched them at Manchester United two weeks ago and they were dour and defensive, but Saido Berahino missed a golden chance to level things up in the second half. They’ll need more from him and Salomon Rondon, but watch for set pieces: Chris Brunt has exceptional delivery, and Dawson, Evans and Olsson are tall clanking defenders who can cause problems.
Functional West Brom versus flamboyant Arsenal: a nice clash of styles on display, and it should be a good one. Join me!
Tim will be here shortly. In the meantime, Arsène Wenger has spoken about last week’s tragic events in Paris:
Arsène Wenger has praised the way football has united behind his “tolerant and generous country” following the terror attacks across Paris on Friday.
Wenger was in the city when it was hit by a series of attacks, including three suicide bombers detonating vests outside the Stade de France, where the national team were playing Germany. He had been set to attend the match but a last-minute change of plans meant he watched the game on television from his hotel.
Wenger was at Wembley on Tuesday night when England hosted France and was seen on TV singing La Marseillaise as the two nations united in a show of solidarity.
Talking in the buildup to Arsenal’s Premier League match against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, he said: “I was late for my appointment, so I was late to the stadium and I decided to watch the game in the hotel where I was. I was more under shock than fearful.
“You could be scared because it was four different places attacked. You don’t feel secure anywhere. Everybody who was in Paris on Friday night was in shock.France is like England – a tolerant and generous country. We now have a bit more of a question of security, because it looks like it’s not the end of it.”
