Six talking points from West Brom's defeat to Arsenal
Albion lost 2-0 away at Arsenal last night after Alexandre Lacazette followed up his header with a penalty. Here, Baggies reporter Matt Wilson picks out six talking points from the match.
1) ALBION DON'T WIN PENALTIES
The Baggies have now gone 39 league games without a penalty, which is the longest current drought in the top tier. Not since Nacer Chadli tucked home a spot-kick in the 4-2 win over West Ham last September have they been given a free hit from 12 yards.
Although they were unjustly punished on Monday by referee Bobby Madley, perhaps they have suffered from weak attacks with too few numbers and a focus on set-pieces. Now Pulis is playing two up front and threatening from open play, hopefully that will change.
2) ALLAN NYOM'S CLUMSINESS FALLS FOUL AGAIN
The full-back looks far more at home on the right than the left, and he has the power and pace to play in this wing-back role. But there will always be question marks over his erratic style that sometimes gets him in trouble. Although it was a soft penalty for Madley to award, it was an unnecessarily vigorous challenge on Aaron Ramsey from a player who seems to give away more spot-kicks than others.
3) GRZEGORZ KRYCHOWIAK ADDS PENETRATION GOING FORWARD
Albion will always look dangerous from set pieces, but Tony Pulis does appear to be developing his threat from open play. Not only does the wing-back system allow him to play two up front, but Krychowiak's bursting runs forward add a much-needed penetration through the thirds of the pitch.
Although he did give the ball away too much at the Emirates Stadium, he was willing to get forward too. However, there were times against Arsenal when he had no other option but to try and run with the ball because there were no options ahead of him.
4) PULIS NEEDS TO BRUSH UP UP ON THE LAWS OF THE GAME
The Baggies boss called for Shkodran Mustafi to be sent off because he was 'last man', even though no such rule applies. A red card can be shown if a defender 'denies an obvious goalscoring opportunity', which Mustafi plainly didn't because Rodriguez went on to hit the post.
In addition, that particular law was relaxed last season for challenges in the box in order to remove the double punishment for teams. Was it a penalty? Yes. Was it a red card? No.
5) PHILLIPS AND BRUNT SUFFERING FROM WING-BACK SYSTEM
Matt Phillips was Albion's most dangerous player last season, but he's being limited to substitute appearances in this 5-3-2 formation that has removed the need for wingers. Although he's proved himself capable of tracking back, it's unlikely Pulis will trust him at wing-back from the start of a game.
Chris Brunt, meanwhile, has proved over and over again that he is an important asset, but the younger, more dynamic Kieran Gibbs is flourishing at wing-back in a system that allows him to get forward.
Both players were deadly from set-pieces last season, but Gibbs's pin-point corner against Man City that was tucked in by Claudio Yacob suggests he can step into that role while Krychowiak has taken over the right-footed duties from Phillips.
6) PROMISING SIGNS THAT THIS TEAM IS EVOLVING
Although it is now five games without a win in all competitions, and the Baggies have only scored three goals in those fixtures, there have been patches in both defeats to Man City and Arsenal to suggest there is a good performance around the corner.
Albion have threatened from open play more, and caused trouble for both sides at times. The key now is to keep it up for the whole 90 minutes, while being more clinical in front of goal, because that should be enough to win them a game.
