Albion have only themselves to blame for failing to pull this Premier League clash out of the fire after conceding a two-goal deficit to Arsenal.
The Gunners had defender Per Mertesacker sent off in a 70thminute incident which gave James Morrison the chance to pull a goal back from the penalty spot.
But missed a rush of late chances to save the game and the sense of a team in fade-out continued as Arsenal held on for the three points.
Albion and The Hawthorns only came to life over the final half-hour – before that a lethargic Baggies could not shake that end-of-season feeling as Tomas Rosicky scored both visitors' goals.
A 20thminute opener came after Mikel Arteta just had played Gervinho into space down Albion's left and he twisted Gareth McAuley into submission before crossing for Rosicky to head home.
Albion's best effort of the opening half was a near-post Claudio Yacob header from a Chris Brunt corner which was headed off the line by Rosicky.
Rosicky escaped Albion's midfield and slammed a stinging shot Ben Foster did well just to parry. But Rosicky followed up and scored easily.
That forced Head Coach Steve Clarke's hand and off the bench came Romelu Lukaku and Markus Rosenberg for disappointing wide men Graham Dorrans and Jerome Thomas just after the hour.
It gave Albion a more attacking impetus. Morrison, having nearly scored a superb individual goal in a man of the match performance, set up Chris Brunt for a chance beaten away by Lukasz Fabianski . But another pinpoint pass from Morrison set Shane Long clear enough to lure a penalty-area foul from Mertesacker.
As the German trooped away under ref Howard Webb's red card, Morrison drilled home the spot kick with 20 minutes remaining.
After that, Albion could have taken their pick from chances to at least save a point but Gareth Mcauley, Morrison, Lukaku and Long all failed when they should have done better.
Albion have only themselves to blame for failing to pull this Premier League clash out of the fire after conceding a two-goal deficit to Arsenal.
Check the build-up, team news and live match updates as Wolves head north to Bolton, West Brom host Arsenal, Aston Villa make the trip to Stoke and Walsall welcome Sheffield United.
West Bromwich Albion boss Steve Clarke today revealed he will hold crunch talks with Markus Rosenberg this summer about the striker's Hawthorns future.
West Brom have opened contract talks with midfielder Youssouf Mulumbu as boss Steve Clarke attempts to tie down a trio of stars before the summer.
No way should we have lost that, there's no use only giving it a go in the last 20 mins of matches when it's too late! Lukaku and Shane Long missed sitters, he needs to work on his touch and his left foot.
Would be nice to invest in some younger players in the summer not saying do a Villa just balance it out with our older players and start building for the future.
After being slightly critical of you the other day let me say I can't disagree with much that you say there. An excellent post that is critical but in a reasoned way.
I think when we started the season we had pace in Lukaku, Long, Odem, JT and the possibility of El Ghannassy coming through. Unfortunately EG hasn't trained on, JT's injuries look to have caught up with him but I think the club owed him a chance this season and I think yesterday may be his last start in an Albion shirt.
Because 451 suits us better I'm sure that yesterday's plan was to let Shane run their defence ragged for an hour and then bring on a fresh Rom to finish the job. The timing of Arsenal's second goal put paid to that.
What did we learn yesterday? For me to be more ruthless. I'm not saying we should turn into Stoke but look at Arsenal, a so called soft team. Half a dozen times when we we broke through their defence they stopped us with cynical fouls, EVENTUALLY Webb remembered he had a yellow card but against good teams chances are limited and when they're gone they're gone.
When Arsenal broke through we adopted an 'after you Charles' approach that suited their pretty play a treat. It was screaming out for a couple of heavy challenges and taking a yellow for the team from some players but it never happened.
Another weekend of Premier League football to forget for the Baggies. Against an Arsenal team playing without Wilshere and Walcott and pushing for a Champions League place, the Baggies played second fiddle until the 70th minute when a penalty goal and a man advantage teased the Baggies faithfuls for another 25 minutes to no avail.
It was a footballing lesson on how to protect a lead with a man down and 25 minutes to play. It was also a lesson on how not chase a game with a man advantage and 25 minutes left to play in your home turf.
From all indications the Baggies team that lined up against Arsenal could conceivably be the Baggies team for Next Season plus Mulumbu.
The challenge for this team is to find a way to score goals on a consistent basis. 2 goals (from the penalty spot) in the last 3 matches is becoming more like a trend. There were clear cut opportunities begging to be clinically put away not only against Arsenal but also against West Ham and Stoke City.
If the Baggies opened this season with a bang they just might be ending it with anything other than a bang. It is not inconceivable that the form these Baggies had in the first 11 games of the season was just a fluke. If so it was timely and decisive for this Baggies Season because it pretty much guarantied safety and another top flight season. Can these Baggies rediscover the magic of the first 11 games in the last 6 or do we have to wait for the first 11 games of next season to find out? Time will tell.
puzzled as to why lukaku came on in last part of game, surely the tank would have been better deployed from the start , and that would have pushed the gooners backline deeper, just a thought. Nevermind , boing boing, come on you baggies
Second season in a row I was left gutted by "lucky" Arsenal. There are questions to be asked about the quality of our play and the decision to play Long as the lone striker was wrong imo because it gave Gunners too much respect. At least two of our players were slow on the ball in first and I doubt I need name them. Webb made some poor decisions - should've had a first half spot kick - but the chant against him was inexcusable.
Billy Jones is improving, Yacob put in a good display; but football is a results game and the second half of the season does have some causes for concern.
Arsenal at this moment in time are a better team than us, but i always feel there's a chance when we lay seige in the latter stages.
Wenger builds football teams, always an abundance of young unknown players coming through, his team are not far away from putting in a serious challenge to the big spending top three.
It's worth remembering the likes of Wenger and Moyes have built 'new' teams on more than one occassion and both remain a force in the Premiership, i hope SC fits into their category of manager/coach.
Our boys took a right old clogging every time we advanced into Arsenal territory before they scored. Two penalty shouts not given, Yacob blatantly impeded, G-Mac left as though he was growing another head. Heaven knows what the referee was looking at, on both incidents. Two *Star men*, James Morrison and the ever improving Billy the kid. ALBION made enough chances to have won this one despite Arsenals belligerent attention. Ben Foster had a good game and Yacob stood out like a beacon. Yet again too much threat came down their right wing. Plenty of positives from this encounter to see us through.
GIVING MY OPINION FROM VIEWING MY COMPUTER FROM MY ARMCHAIR. Although it doesn't count as much as some-one watching the match live. Suppose everyone saw G-Macs duck egg from the stands?. L☺Ls.
I said in a post above that I thought Arsenal were cynical rather than dirty. The problem is that we let them get away with it and the yellow card count reflects that. I can't remember any of our players getting stuck in which is fatal against Arsenal. Let them play and they're very capable of doing it.
I also disagree with Steve Clarke. We played okay for an hour but I came as close to scoring as any of our players did. But as they say it's a much easier game from the stands and if Steve got every decision right he wouldn't be managing us.
Why oh why is he sticking with Brunt, he was absolutely dreadful AGAIN and this must go down as his worst match yet, thats match after match where he has been awful, 7 or 8 matches in a row where he has been in decline and his whole body language just isn't right, he looks washed out.
Right Oh here we go again and let me make it quite clear to the few who keep lambasting me when I point out these players, I actually do go to the matches and see the game, in fact I came home yesterday with sunburn on me slap head !
Brunt...Oh dear oh dear, for the love of god drop him now, his passing, shooting and tackling is rubbish, both Arsenals goals came from him, a sloppy header, easy header which went straight to an Arsenal player, the second goal was again Brunt's fault, a crazy lazy stupid east pass that was so weak it gave Arsenal a break from which they scored.
It seems to me the team has progressed slightly from last season and Brunt has stood still,......He was ARSENALS man of the match !!
Long...Lone ranger, caught offside too often due to being slow getting back, falls down to the ground embarrassingly too quickly, didn't look happy at all.
Rosenberg...usual useless sub who just gets in the way of his other team mates, probably needs a goal but I don't think I will see it in my lifetime.
To sum it up, the last 20 mins when Lukaku was on we played like we did against the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool, good attacking, go for the throat display, pity the previous 70 mins were a typical Clarkes gentle, frightened to death, feeble, fumbling display which gave Arsenal too much respect.
We could have beat Arsenal easily, just get at em from the whistle and stop faffing about letting teams play, attack is the best form of defence as the last 20 mins was yesterday....SOOOO FRUSTRATING for fans when you know you got a team who can do it but their reins are held back by a manager who is frightened to death from attacking at kick off
Well we did create enough chances to get something from this game, of that there's no doubt, but a major part of football is the psychological state of a player's mind, so a sending off, followed by a lead sliced in half, dramatically affects both teams thoughts and actions, in this case it produced an edge-of-the-seat final 20 minutes.
Yes, with the game basking in sunshine, the first half for me resembled a pre-season friendly, the second half incidents gave it more intensity, and the flurry of cards, plus obvious play-acting from some of the Arsenal players, brought about the chant of 'same old Arsenal, always cheating....'.
As I said the other day, regardless of what happens on the pitch, I'm very much focused on enjoying the Baggies playing premiership football, the vast majority of football clubs in this country would give their right arms to be where we are, so I ain't disrespecting this gift of live top-flight football before our very eyes.
Players are now being analysed regarding their future, performances are monitored, and feedback will be studied closely.
This season has still been a successful one, the summer will see a few changes, and next season don't exist, it's just an image in our 'eads, it ain't real yet-
Very avaerage again til last 20 mins but they were good chances you cant afford to miss those in this league. i also have to say Whingey would have scored at least 2 of them. I dont think this will be the team next year, I see a a clearout and if we're going to rebuild then we could easily be down with villa next year, current form dictates that anyway, it's averaging a point a game. can't see us getting more than an odd few points, some very tricky games coming up, hope to be proved wrong.
what a complete and utter joke leaving your top goal scorer on the bench.Anyone still convinced Long is a prem player,cant believe he blamed the sun for his air shot, no doubt most on here will be happy with another loss.
It is a pity most people are saying SC got it wrong and putting pressure on the guy, Arsenal play through the middle and our 4-5-1 would have ensured we were not out gunned, and it has served us well this season. keeping it tight and with Long running his socks off as normal would have allowed Lukaku to capitalise in the second half, not a bad plan.
Naturally I hate losing, but to go out fighting makes me that little bit more happy. Arsenal of late have been on good form coupled with the desire to get 3rd & 4th spot.
2 good substitutions by SC in the 2nd half made us look more dangerous. It was scary the way GMAC got turned inside out for the 1st goal.
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