Arsenal 2 West Brom 0 - Report and pictures
It was supposed to be an evening dedicated to Gareth Barry, but referee Bobby Madley made sure all the post-match scrutiny will be trained firmly on him.
His decision to ignore an early stonewall penalty for the Baggies when Shkrodan Mustafi blatantly tripped Jay Rodriguez in the box was compounded by a soft second-half spot-kick he awarded to the Gunners just yards away from his original mistake.
Alexandre Lacazette, who had already given Arsenal the lead after 20 minutes with a short-range header, rolled that 67th-minute penalty in to make it 2-0 and take the sting out of the game.
But it had been far from comfortable for Arsenal up until then in Pulis's 100th game in charge of the Baggies. Albion were the better team in the first half, when Rodriguez had a shot cleared off the line by Nacho Monreal and went close on several other occasions.
Barry was given the captain's armband on his record-breaking 633rd Premier League appearance even though club captain Jonny Evans started.
Vice-captain Jake Livemore was reinstated to the starting line-up after missing the last two games through fatigue, as Pulis kept the same 5-3-2 shape he trialled against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup.
Wenger gave Alexis Sanchez just his second league start of the season and the Chilean was in the thick of the action straight away, winning a free kick on the edge of the box before curling it a foot wide of Ben Foster's far post.
Albion were soaking up the pressure and looking to break quickly, which they did nine minutes in when man of the moment Barry sent Rodriguez away down the channel.
The summer signing turned inside Mustafi and was clipped in the box by a challenge that should have seen Madley pointing to the spot.
But Rodriguez got back to his feet and fired a low shot goalwards that Petr Cech did well to tip onto the post.
Livermore was following in, and had a gaping net to hit from eight yards out but somehow screwed his shot wide.
Despite that miss, Albion should have been given a penalty for the original foul that caught Rodriguez's standing leg.
Just to add insult to injury, Arsenal took the lead 10 minutes later, and it came from a Jonny Evans trip no worse than Mustafi's.
The Baggies centre-back, who Wenger wanted in the summer, came rushing out of the five-man defence and gave away a free-kick on the edge of the area which Sanchez curled over the wall.
Foster acrobatically palmed the effort onto the crossbar but Lacazette was the quickest to respond, and nodded home a simple opener from three yards out to grab his third goal of the season.
On the whole though, Albion were solid in their new formation, with Ahmed Hegazi in particular a towering presence at the back.
Arsenal threatened most when Sanchez was in possession, and he nearly slipped Aaron Ramsey through on the half-hour mark.
The diminutive forward then went down in the box after a soft Grzegorz Krychowiak challenge that, had it been given, would have sent an already-seething Pulis into an uncontrollable rage.
But Albion ended the half on top, and they will wonder how they didn't equalise.
Firstly, Krychowiak burst forward with purpose and saw his deflected cross find Rodriguez at the back post.
The striker's luck hadn't improved though, because even though his header back across goal beat Cech, Nacho Monreal was on hand to hack it clear off the line.
That sparked a barrage of chances for the blue and white stripes. Rodriguez came close again when Allan Nyom's cross was flicked across goal, but the onrushing striker couldn't quite stretch enough to get his toe on it.
Then, on the stroke of half-time, Cech had to frantically kick away a Barry header while lying inside the goal with Rodriguez ready to pounce after Krychowiak's perfect cross-field ball was sent into the box first time by Arsenal old boy Kieran Gibbs.
How the Gunners led at half-time was anyone's guess, but they and Lacazette nearly made it two six minutes after the break when his goalbound shot was deflected inches over the bar by a Hegazi block.
Just after the hour mark Pulis sent James Morrison and Salomon Rondon on for Livermore and Robson-Kanu in an effor to reinvigorate his side that had fallen flat.
But it didn't work, and shortly after, Lacazette got his second. Infuriatingly for Albion, it came when Madley gave the Gunners a penalty for an Allan Nyom challenge on Aaron Ramsey just yards away from Mustafi's original trip on Rodriguez.
The wing-back tried to ease the Arsenal man out of play on the byline, but his strong-arming technique was too strong for Madley, who pointed to the spot.
Lacazette rolled the spot-kick into the corner, even though Foster guessed right, and that seemed to knock the stuffing out of the Baggies, allowing Arsenal to comfortably see out the game.
That is Pulis's 11th straight away defeat at Arsenal, but based on the referee's performance, it may one of the most galling.
Teams:
Albion (5-3-2): Foster, Nyom (Phillips 74), Dawson, Hegazi, Evans, Gibbs, Livermore (Morrison 63), Barry (c), Krychowiak, Rodriguez, Robson-Kanu (Rondon 65). Unused subs: Myhill, Yacob, Brunt, McClean.
Arsenal (3-4-3): Cech, Koscielny (c), Mustafi, Monreal, Bellerin, Elneny, Xhaka, Kolasinac, Ramsey (Maitland-Niles 93), Lacazette (Giroud 82), Sanchez (Ozil 83). Unused subs: Ospina, Mertesacker, Wilshere, Walcott.
Referee: Bobby Madley
