London: Arsenal were denied victory on their manager Arsene Wenger’s big day as West Bromwich Albion snatched a dramatic late point in a 1-1 Premier League draw, Sunday.
In Wenger’s record 811th game in charge, James McClean deflected in Alexis Sanchez’s 83rd-minute free kick to put Arsenal on course for three points.
But Calum Chambers was harshly adjudged to have handled in the penalty area and Jay Rodriguez converted an 89th-minute spot kick to help his side climb off the bottom of the table.
The Arsenal players were furious with the decision and Wenger was spoken to by referee Mike Dean but his team did climb above Tottenham Hotspur into fifth place in the table.
A knee injury kept Mesut Ozil out of the Arsenal side and they missed the guile of the Germany international as they struggled to create any real openings in the first half.
In the final 10 minutes, the game came to life. Sanchez’s free kick found the net after taking a flick off McClean who was standing on the edge of the wall.
“You can’t turn your back on it like that,” West Brom manager Alan Pardew said. ”It is there for everyone to see. So he will have to learn,” he added.
As West Brom pressed for an equaliser, Kieran Gibbs tried to clip a cross into the middle, the ball hit Chambers on the arm and Dean pointed to the spot.
Rodriguez stepped up and calmly drilled the penalty down the middle to ensure Arsenal have won just twice in seven league games.
Interestingly, Arsenal went old school for this match, wearing red shorts for the first time in over 40 years. The Gunners in their final game of 2017 at the Hawthorns, decided to mix things up by wearing their home kit – with a slight change. At the Emirates, fans are used to seeing red shirts and socks in the Arsenal home kit, but mixed with white shorts.
West Brom’s white shorts, though, risked a slight kit clash Sunday, and Arsenal therefore opted to bring out a kit that got fans reminiscing about the old days.
Arsenal last wore red shorts against QPR in 1978, and memorably before that in 1970 in order to stand out against the wintry conditions in a snowy Boxing Day clash against Southampton.
The decision certainly split fans on social media, with one user claiming the new kit made the players look like Super Mario. One other fan claimed the kit looked ‘amazing’, while another said it made the players look as though they were wearing pyjamas.
reuters
