If Arsene Wenger was looking for some sort of sign that he should stay on as the Arsenal manager and sign a new contract, he may have been heartened to see two things at the Hawthorns today and they came just a couple of minutes apart.
First we saw a great ball over the top from Granit Xhaka to find Alexis Sanchez, with the Chilean showing his class to score his 18th Premier League goal of the season and cancel out the lead taken by West Brom three minutes earlier. Then we saw a second banner of the day flown over the stadium, this time showing fan support for the beleaguered boss.
The people who arranged that second banner to disagree with the earlier one calling for Wenger to quit could hardly have been better timed, but that was as good as it got for the Frenchman because the rest of the game saw his entire team systematically fail to show anything like the sort of desire and commitment that would have strengthened their manager’s position at the club.
Both Jamie Redknapp and Thierry Henry in the TV studio suggested that this was a performance from the players that suggested they did not care whether Wenger stays or goes and if that is true, surely the end is nigh. The players let him down, that is for sure, but if it is because they have given up then surely the Arsenal board must react and do something to ensure that the players do go out with the right attitude.
But did they just signal the end of his 20 year reign?
Bob.