Hard Time For Arsenal, Admits Wenger

An own goal from Mikel Arteta then saw West Brom go 2-1 up before the break and a missed penalty from Santi Cazorla late in the second half saw Arsenal leave empty handed.

The Gunners took an early lead through Olivier Giroud but suffered a major setback when Francis Coquelin left the pitch with an injury.

Arsene Wenger has admitted Arsenal are in the midst of a “difficult moment” in the build-up to their crucial Champions League clash with Dinamo Zagreb.

In the 67th minute Joel Campbell missed a golden opportunity when he took an open one-time strike from inside the six yard box, but shanked it wide. “I believe West Brom did fight with 100 per cent commitment as well and you have to give them credit for that”, he added. Ramsey, Wilshere, Walcott, who else – hundreds of them you wouldn’t mind having’. “This is a big blow for us”.

“It’s a shame because we started the game well, we went 1-0 up and then after they scored [twice] before half-time it became more hard for us”. And maybe we had a few lapses of concentration when we were 1-0 up.

“The only part where maybe we lost focus a bit was between the 35th minute and the 45th minute”.

“Our defending at that level was very, very poor”. We knew at set pieces they were risky but they didn’t even need to head the ball’.

As it turned out, Clattenburg had penalised the midfielder for taking two touches as he slipped.

Wenger said that he had no doubts about fielding either player, citing their professionalism.

The Gunners’ boss refused to blame any one individual for the defeat, and insisted that he was happy with his players for giving everything they had till the final minute. “I would not explain our defeat by that”. I think it’s sad. We are all down. “When you are on the pitch, you are on the pitch”.

Jonas Olsson nearly netted a third for West Brom after a superb corner from Brunt, but Cech somehow did enough to deny the Swede and keep his side’s chances alive.

Pulis’ team came from behind to beat Arsenal 2-1 at the Hawthorns, with a determined performance full of hard work and running.

Sanchez was Arsenal’s best player despite only returning from worldwide duty with Chile in South America on Thursday.