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MOTD: Arsenal 2-0 West Bromwich Albion

By on April 21, 2016

For weeks, Arsenal have been fighting, in vain, to stay in the Premier League title race and within touching distance of league leaders Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City. As they slipped further behind in points, a sense of impending doom engulfed the Emirates. Their worst fears were confirmed at the weekend when they drew Crystal Palace and were mathematically eliminated from the title race, confined to their usual doldrums of a battle for third or fourth place. And the only thing worse than a sense of doom is that of no one caring.

For all the pre-match tremors, while their were no outright calls for Arsene Wegner’s job in the Gunners’ midweek clash with West Bromwich Albion, their was a familiar sense of apathy and indifference around the Emirates. There was scattered applause, but it was outweighed by the heavy silence of thousands of empty seats and Arsenal began the match with all-too-familiar sequences of sideways passing.

Yet just when Arsenal most needed spark, Alexis Sanchez once again stepped up to the plate with an electrifying performance. The Chilean winger bagged two lovely first-half goals to ease Arsenal past an indifferent West Brom, the home side’s first win in three games.

Sanchez circumnavigated Sandro twenty yards out before driving an excellent low effort into the bottom-left corner before whipping a delightful free-kick through the wall and into the bottom corner from twenty-five yards. Arsenal dominated the game in the same manner that they did against Palace at the weekend, but Sanchez provided that vital cutting edge.

For all the work that Wenger will put into the transfer market to transform Arsenal into a true title challenger next season, tying Sanchez down on a new contract is their first order of business. The twenty-seven-year-old has but two years left on his current deal and has unequivocally been the Gunners’ most valuable asset this season.

Aaron Ramsey told Arsenal Player: “We played with a real purpose from the off and we created opportunities. We managed to take a couple of them and I thought we deserved it today.

“That is perhaps where we have been lacking in the last couple of games. We definitely proved what we could do tonight and if we play like that all the time there is no reason why we can’t win every game.

“I felt really good out there, really comfortable. I thought it was really important for the whole team to put in a real good performance and I think we did that.”

Said Wenger: “You look at the time like us, every point is important at the moment. I think we are under permanent pressure in every single game so it is important to have the lead and focus on the way we want to play football.”

Most certainly, Sanchez restored a sense of passion and direction in the Emirates that Arsenal had been lost in recent weeks, but to Gunners supporters it may only have served as a reminder of this season’s missed opportunity.

Homepage photo credit: joshjdss, via Flickr [CC BY 2.0]

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.