West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis has heaped praise on his team after they saw off the challenge of Arsenal with a 2-1 victory at The Hawthorns this afternoon. Anything that could go wrong did go wrong, and it seemed inevitable that Santi Cazorla would slip up when he took that penalty.
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The Gunners went down 2-1 and missed the chance to go top of the Barclays Premier League while title rivals Manchester City were thumped 4-1 by Liverpool.
“First and foremost I thought we gave a very good performance in the first half”, he said.
West Brom host Arsenal at the Hawthorns with the visitors knowing a point will take them to the top of the table for at least a couple of hours. “It was a huge goal when we scored and then you just make sure they do not come back with an easy goal”.
If Santi Cazorla’s late failure from the penalty spot – the Spaniard losing his feet as he struck the ball – capped a second half of missed chances, Wenger was especially vexed by his team’s defending. It is a big blow today for us as if the game reflects the result then okay but when you drop points when you have come out of a game and think you have not done the maximum to produce you can not be happy.
“Yes, I don’t deny that”, he said.
To date, the injury list for Arsenal includes: Francis Coquelin, Mikel Arteta, Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck, and Tomas Rosicky.
“We have two more injuries”. It is sad and we are all down but when you are on the pitch you are on the pitch’.
“I don’t want to speculate too much on the career of a player but he’s been punished”, Wenger added.
While a heavy defeat at Bayern in their last European outing could be excused given the quality of the opposition, there was no explaining away lacklustre losses against Dinamo and Olympiakos.
James McClean of West Bromwich Albion and Hector Bellerin of Arsenal compete for the ball during the Barclays Premier League match between West Bromwich Albion and Arsenal.
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“There’s been games here this year where we’ve been disappointed because we’ve lost. The lads deserve it for the effort they’ve put in”, he said.
