Arsenal vs West Brom match report: Alexis Sanchez's double leaves fans wondering what might have been
Arsenal 2 West Bromwich Albion 0
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Your support makes all the difference.When Arsenal bought Alexis Sanchez for £30m in the summer of 2014, it smacked of a signing that could propel the Gunners - freed of the financial shackles of building the Emirates - into a title-winning team. That they find themselves two years on still fighting the annual fight for fourth is the source of the frustration that smothers the club and had the fans protesting with their absence against West Brom.
Sanchez scored twice - his fourth and fifth in his last four games - as the Gunners beat a West Brom side lacking urgency. The win takes Arsenal back to third two points above City, four above United but the sadness for the fans is that they believe the result should have been so much more meaningful.
Arsene Wenger has been in sticky spots before during his 20 years at the helm but never before has the stadium he is charged to fill been so empty at kick-off for a meaningful encounter. Large clumps of red seats were visible around the Emirates.
Wenger made three changes to the team that drew so limply with Crystal Palace at the weekend, bringing in Olivier Giroud for Danny Welbeck in attack, despite the latter providing the one pass that cracked the Eagles’ defence on Sunday. Per Mertesacker returned to defence at Gabriel’s expense and Aaron Ramsey was included in midfield instead of Francis Coquelin.
Albion, who won the return fixture in November 2-1, brought in Sandro for Salomon Rondon to thicken up their midfield following their disappointing, double-penalty spurning defeat to Watford on Saturday.
But the midfield was not thick enough. In the sixth minute Arsenal pounced, Ramsey rolling the ball into Sanchez who had moved into the middle from the right wing where Wenger deems him so dangerous. The Chilean’s delightful first-touch turn left Sandro hacking in vain and the winger then fizzed a shot past Ben Foster.
Arsenal almost doubled their lead two minutes later when Alex Iowbi fed the overlapping Nacho Monreal who cut the ball back to the lurking Mesut Ozil. Jonny Evans blocked the shot.
The half took on an eerily similar pattern to that of the Palace match: keep-ball for Arsenal, pretty popped passes galore, West Brom sitting in. In the 24th minute a cute back heel from Sanchez set Hector Bellerin, named in the PFA Team of the Year before kick-off, haring down the right but his shot was sliced into the side netting.
Gareth McAuley then gave the Gunners are reminder, as if they needed it, that one goal is often insufficient when he took advantage of Arsenal’s zonal marking to get above Giroud and glance a header from a corner on to the bar.
In the 32nd minute, Bellerin and Ramsey combined to bamboozle the Baggies backline with a one-two-three-four before the Spaniard cut the ball back when he could have shot - heard that before about Arsenal? - to Ozil whose drive trickled under Foster. Luckily for him, Craig Dawson was on the line.
Arsenal settled the rumbling Emirates discontent in the 38th minute when Sanchez scored his second, clipping in a free-kick from the edge of the box after Claudio Yacob had tripped Ramsey. It was so close to the D that the Chilean neglected to go up and over the wall, instead using the sizeable frame of Mertesacker as a shield and going to the side Foster should have been protecting.
Arsenal dominated the second half as they had the first, some delightful quick passing between Sanchez, Iwobi and Ozil creating danger for the Baggies. Ozil was denied first by Foster in the 67th minute after being set clear by Sanchez, then by a sliding Jonas Olsson after Iwobi’s pass.
Albion appeared to have cause for complaint when first Iwobi and then Mohamed Elneny tumbled in the Baggies’ box under very little contact. Referee Jon Moss, so widely lambasted for his performance in the Leicester v West Ham match at the weekend, opted to book neither.
At the other end Rondon failed to score from three yards after the ball broke to him when Petr Cech made a mess of punching a corner but they offered little in attack. Giroud’s snap shot was blocked by Foster but Arsenal could not add a third. The fans that bothered to show up left wondering, not for the first time under Wenger at this time of the year, what might have been.
Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Cech; Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Ramsey, Elneny; Iwobi (Coquelin 81), Ozil (Walcott 84), Sanchez (Campbell 84); Giroud.
West Brom (4-5-1): Foster; Dawson, McAuley, Evans, Chester (Olsson h/t); Sessegnon, Fletcher, Yacob, Sandro (Rondon h/t), McClean (Gardner 65), Berahino.
Referee: Jon Moss
Attendance: 59,568
Star man: Sanchez
Match rating: 5
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