A lot of the focus after West Brom 3-1 Arsenal will inevitably be on the Gunners and that’ll be unfair on an Albion side who were absolutely terrific on Saturday afternoon.
They exploited Arsenal’s weaknesses to perfection with Craig Dawson scoring twice from corner kicks, either side of Hal Robson-Kanu took advantage of some poor goalkeeping.
There were excellent performances all over the park for Tony Pulis’ men and those are reflected in our Albion player ratings:
Ben Foster - 8
Made a few really good saves, both with his hands and his feet. Claimed plenty of high balls to ease the pressure on his defence. Had no chance of saving the goal.
Craig Dawson - 9
Timed his runs and leaps perfectly for both goals. Defended well too and was only let down by his team mate when Sanchez scored from his side.
Gareth McAuley - 7
Stayed cool under pressure and defended resolutely.
Jonny Evans - 8
Best defender on the pitch by a mile. So assured in the air and on the ground. A wonderful performance by the Northern Irishman
Allan Nyom - 7
Defended really well, using his pace and power to get out of a few tricky spots.
Jake Livermore - 7
Protected the back four well. A very disciplined performance.
Darren Fletcher - 8
Looked to play a bit higher up the pitch and led the press well. His passing was really good too.
Chris Brunt - 5
A quiet game from Brunt. His technique surprisingly let him down at times. Wasn’t a huge shock to see him taken off.
Nacer Chadli - 6
Helped set up two goals but was also at fault when Arsenal scored as he completely failed to track back with Sanchez.
James McClean - 8
Worked his backside off and was West Brom’s out-ball all game. His challenge on Alexis was a bad one and he deserved his booking but continued to play well after that.
Salomon Rondon - 5
Battled hard but was pretty ineffective before he was subbed off.
(Sub) Hal Robson-Kanu - 7
Made an immediate impact, scoring less than two minutes after coming on. Made a nuisance of himself and put in a lot of hard work.