West Bromwich Albion got relegated from the Premier League for the fifth time after Arsenal’s last-minute defeat to the Gunners to Europe.
Sam Allardyce‘s side was already down, but their return to the Championship got confirmed. With the Baggies sitting 10 points in safety with three games left.
Emile Smith Rowe volleyed for the opener from Bukayo Saka‘s castle in the 29th minute after Arsenal blocked a promising visitors’ start.
Nicolas Pepe had made West Brom’s job even more difficult six minutes later when he cut in the middle right. And he bent to the top corner to double Arsenal’s lead.
Matthew Pereira gave the visitors hope, running his side to score an individual goal 23 minutes from time.
But it was not enough to stop West Brom from losing a combined Premier League defeat. With Willian adding a third late to Arsenal with a free-kick.
The win means the Gunners, who got knocked out of the Europa League on Thursday. They have at least a chance to play European football next season.
Allardyce can’t save the West Brom.
The game brought together two managers at different levels of their coaching jobs. But who endured the same moments of related struggle.
For Allardyce, a defeat at the Emirates confirms his first relegation to the Premier League as manager. However, the 66-year-old has accepted their fate ahead of the game.
The fastest-growing artist in this category replaced Slaven Bilic in December when the Baggies were 19 years old. At the table and accepted the task of trying to guide them to survival.
Allardyce has kept Blackburn Rovers, Sunderland, and Crystal Palace in England’s top flight after dominating similar circumstances.
Still, the Hawthorns rescue operation proved huge as West Brom only has four wins in 22 league games.
They arrived in north London needing to double the game and win all their remaining games. And at the same time, hoping that one of Burnley, Southampton, and Brighton failed to win theirs.
West Brom got off to a good start.
The Baggies got off to a good start, and Pereira curled up a bit in the distance before blowing up again for a good break. But that confidence waned when Arsenal turned us down just before the half-hour.
It took a fantastic moment for Pereira to heal them again, with Brazil scoring his 10th league goal of the season. Before being kicked by his country’s free will. Willian will put the game above the visitors with intelligent driving and finishing.
It means West Brom is returning to the Championship for the first time to ask. And join Norwich City as the only teams to be relegated to the Premier League five times.
Allardyce, along with the impressive Pereira, is at the club to lead the bid for the next season remains to be seen.
The former England manager says he will talk about his future when he and the team face disappointment going downhill.
Youth key to the Arsenal rebuild
Allardyce was less sympathetic to Arsenal pressure boss Mikel Arteta ahead of the game. And said Spain’s time with the Gunners “would determine his career in the future.”
Seventeen months of the leading office and 39-year-old 39-year-old stay in north London. And have come under fire after a slow exit of the Europa League semi-final.
In Villarreal has left the Gunners hoping to miss European football next season for the first time in 25 years.
A place in the Europa League remains unlikely without Arsenal sitting in ninth place. Six points behind West Ham United in the fifth and five behind Liverpool in the sixth.
In any case, Arteta insists that significant changes need to be made to his team next season. And he expects the club’s owners to support him in the transfer market.
He can look to build his future team around the two home stars in Saka and Smith Rowe. He has done well this season and met very well in the final to get the opening goal.
The 19-year-old strongman had done more help than any other Arsenal player since he started playing in November 2018.
And he got his 19th in the club when he took 20-year-old Smith Rowe to direct the volume beyond Sam Johnstone.
Smith Rowe’s first goal of the Premier League, and Arteta said after that the player “took the right steps.” But now he has to keep scoring more points.
Arteta will also hope that signing the club’s record of Pepe could feature as many times as he did in repeating the Gunners’ lead soon.
At the same time, Gabriel Martinelli, 19, is expected to lead the attack with captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang left on the bench.
‘Bad relegation from the club and the players’
West Brom manager Sam Allardyce told Match of the Day: “It looked like a while. And we haven’t given ourselves a chance to give ourselves a better chance to stay awake.
“I think these players should have struggled to get involved. They have played well enough, but our scoring skills have left us.
“It’s a sad night, but we have to take it too. It doesn’t hurt me as much as it does in the club or the players.
“It hurts; I wanted it at the club and the players more than me. But it hasn’t happened yet. Everyone has to accept it and recover quickly.”
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, speaking to Match of the Day: “A great way to do it with the right attitude.
“We have done too many steps, and some you can see and some you can’t. The foundations are there.”
