Match Review: Arsenal 1 West Brom 0 - Premier League 04.05.14

The curtain came down on another season at the Emirates, as Arsenal eased to a 1-0 win over West Brom. Neither side looked interested in playing at 100% and the whole game had a real dead rubber feel about it. The team signed off with a win ahead of the season ender at Norwich and then obviously the big one at Wembley. While the season as a whole has been very up and down, our games at the Emirates have been 90% very enjoyable, something that bodes well for next season.

Despite fourth place being secure, we named a strong team, probably the strongest we could given the injury situation. Worryingly, Aaron Ramsey didn’t even make the squad having picked up a thigh injury. Chamberlain and Gibbs remained sidelined, while Wilshere is still fighting to be fit for the Cup Final. There was some unexpected good news though, as Abou Diaby was able to take a place on the bench for the first time in over a year. I still don’t think he has much of a future at Arsenal, but he has a ridiculous amount of resilience to have got back to any sort of fitness. Many would have retired a while back, so you can only have admiration for his ability to stay positive with his injury record.

To be honest, the whole game had a training ground feel about it. West Brom are a very poor team and we had no trouble dominating only playing at about 50%. West Brom posed no threat and spent a lot of time aggressively shouting at the referee and committing sly, nasty fouls. It was really only going to be a matter of time before we took the lead, but surprisingly the breakthrough came from a corner. As Santi Cazorla went over to take, the West Brom fans booed loudly, recalling the same fixture from last year, where Cazorla dived to win a penalty. Cazorla whipped the corner in and Giroud, who beat his marker far too easily, simply nodded it home, before doing a nice knee slide in front of the West Brom fans, who’d unsurprisingly shut up. Perhaps they wouldn’t have conceded if their defender hadn’t been trying to foul Giroud rather than mark him.

The rest of the half passed serenely. Arsenal kept the ball and pressed with minimal urgency. Berahino was West Brom's only outlet and he was consistently swept aside by Mertesacker and Koscielny. It was pretty boring to be honest, the only entertaining moments coming when Özil decided to make a mockery of a few defenders. He looked so ridiculously far above the level of any West Brom player, it was little sad watching them desperately try and get near him. That said, he did nearly gift them an equaliser with a horribly careless pass near his own area. But I'll forgive him due to how little significance the match had.

At half time, the Arsenal fans were treated to a magnificently bearded Robert Pires, who joined the whole stadium in honouring the brilliant Jill Smith. The Emirates rose in appreciation for a dedicated fan and servant of the club, who was also thanked in a video featuring Arsenal legends past and present.

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Everyone then fell back asleep for the second half. It was horribly dull. There were very few highlights, or moments of any note. We did hit the post through Podolski and if he's honest with himself, he'll know he should have scored. Giroud had a nasty head to head confrontation with a West Brom player who was desperately trying to steal his shirt. Their team seemed a lot more interested in trying to start fights with people than actually getting something from the game and it got a bit Stokey at times. Thankfully our defence held strong and West Brom got the nothing they deserved from the game. It didn't matter much, as with Cardiff and Fulham already confirmed as relegated and Norwich soon to follow, they can look forward to pointlessly taking up a place they don't deserve in the Premier League next year.

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