Arsenal find goals to sink Baggies

Arsenal returned to scoring ways with a convincing 3-1 victory over struggling West Brom at the Hawthorns.

Bendtner amongst the goals to break scoring drought

Arsenal returned to scoring ways with a convincing 3-1 victory over struggling West Brom at the Hawthorns. The win ends a four-game goalless streak for Arsene Wenger's side and edges them closer to UEFA Champions League rivals Aston Villa. Nicklas Bendtner was the star of the show and it took him just four minutes to open the scoring with a well-placed shot after some slack West Brom defending. The lead was short-lived however as a Chris Brunt free-kick somehow managed to beat the Arsenal wall and creep past Manuel Almunia into the bottom corner. Arsenal regained their composure to take control again, this time Kolo Toure leapt highest to head home an Andrey Arshavin free-kick. The game was wrapped up on the stroke of half-time as Bendtner latched onto a Toure long ball to fire past Scott Carson to give Arsenal a 3-1 lead at the break and rode out a quiet second half to take all three points.

Reluctant

Albion have conceded 17 goals in their last six league games and at times seemed reluctant to put in a tackle as Bendtner and his team-mates cut through them almost at will. Baggies keeper Carson looks uncertain and devoid of confidence when dealing with crosses into the box although he did make some reflex stops after the interval to prevent the scoreline becoming more embarrassing. Russia international Arshavin looked sharp in his second start for Arsenal who are now unbeaten in 14 league games. But on this evidence Albion looked doomed to the drop unless they can stop gifting soft goals to the opposition in the final 10 games of the season. Arsenal made a positive start and needed only four minutes to end their recent goal drought through Bendtner. Samir Nasri's corner was headed clear by Baggies skipper Jonathan Greening but only found Denilson in space on the edge of the Baggies area. He had time to release Bendtner who easily cut inside Ryan Donk before drilling a low left-footed drive across Carson into the corner of the net.

Level

Albion needed only three minutes to draw level through Brunt although there was big question mark over the quality of the Arsenal defending. Luke Moore was brought down 20 yards out by Gunners defender Johan Djourou and Brunt's low free-kick skidded through the defensive wall and past the dive of Manuel Almunia. Bendtner missed a great chance to restore Arsenal's lead after 13 minutes. Emmanuel Eboue fed the ball into the feet of the Danish international who was unmarked 12 yards out but he blazed his shot over the bar. The game was flowing from end to end and Almunia had to go down at his near post to hold a fierce shot on the turn from Moore. A deep corner from Brunt caused problems for Arsenal and was turned back across goal by Fortune but Moore was unable to keep his header down. Then after 38 minutes some dreadful defending allowed Toure to restore Arsenal's lead. Arshavin floated a free-kick into the area and Carson remained rooted to his line as Toure stole in to plant a free header into the corner of the net for his first goal of the season. Then a minute before the interval, Bendtner struck for the second time to double Arsenal's advantage. Toure's long ball caught out the Baggies defence and Bendtner was able to skip away from Abdoulaye Meite before hammering a fierce shot past Carson. Wenger made a half-time substitution with Abou Diaby replacing Toure.

Fierce

Carson did well to parry a fierce drive from Arshavin after he had been teed up by Bendtner who had burst unchallenged into the Baggies box. The England keeper then excelled himself in denying Arshavin at close range after more good play by Bendtner. Arsenal were queueing up to fire shots in at Carson who was relieved to see a long range attempt from Diaby deflect off Meite and over the bar. Then Bendtner was denied a hat-trick when he cut in from the left flank, skipped past Meite and Robinson and hammered a low shot against the post. Fortune could have pulled one back but drilled his low shot wide of the far post.

West Bromwich Albion	Team Statistics	Arsenal
1	Goals	3
1	1st Half Goals	3
4	Shots on Target	7
5	Shots off Target	9
1	Blocked Shots	1
3	Corners	4
20	Fouls	14
2	Offsides	1
4	Yellow Cards	0
0	Red Cards	0
73.3	Passing Success	78.2
34	Tackles	22
73.5	Tackles Success	86.4
46.1	Possession	53.9
48.8	Territorial Advantage	51.2