West Brom stun Arsenal at the Emirates
It was a weekend of upsets in the English Premier League over the weekend and West Bromwich Albion played a major part in that trend by upsetting Arsenal 3-2 at the Gunner's own stadium.
After a scoreless opening half West Brom began to take the match to Arsenal and scored two goals inside the second half's opening seven minutes. The scoring began from Nigerian international Peter Odemwingie in the fiftieth minute after he latched on to
a low cross from Midfielder Jerome Thomas. Arsenal barely had time to catch their breath before West Brom were up 2-0 when West Brom defender Gonzalo Jara Reyes got himself into the opposition's box after being led into space on a nifty back heel pass by midfielder
Chris Brunt. After striking the ball towards goal it looked as if Arsenal keeper Almunia might have got enough to keep it out but it trickled off the keeper into the bottom corner.
Not satisfied with their 2-0 lead West Brom took to the counter attack and fought for more getting their reward twenty minutes later through Jerome Thomas who was stellar on the day fully deserving man of the match honors. Thomas latched onto a pass from
Chris Brunt who found his team-mate after Almunia had come out to challenge.
The match must have seemed out of reach, but the Gunners kept pressing eventually leading to a goal for Samir Nasri only three minutes after Jerome Thomas' strike had made it 3-0. Nasri appeared to take matters into his own hands and scored on a tremendous
individual effort. The young Frenchman added a second strike for Arsenal just before the full-time whistle after he had been sent through with a beautiful pass from Russian midfielder Andrey Arshavin.
Arsenal will take consolation from the fact that despite their loss they remain in third place in the English Premiership and in the hunt by virtue of Chelsea's loss to Manchester City over the weekend. Manchester United also failed to gain real ground as
they had to settle for a draw with Bolton. Arsenal now sit on 11 points from six matches. Their loss to West Brom was their first of the season.
For West Brom, the shock victory has put them for the moment in real contention as they rest just outside the top five just behind Aston Villa on goal difference. West Brom now have 10 points in six matches and have mustered a real turnaround after suffering
that crushing 6-0 defeat to Chelsea on the opening day of the season.
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