West Brom vs Arsenal, Premier League - as it happened
Re-live all the action from the Premier League clash at the Hawthorns
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Your support makes all the difference.Arsenal can end the year ahead of Tottenham if they beat West Bromwich Albion on New Year’s Eve with Arsene Wenger’s side looking to keep on the tails of Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool in the top four race.
With the Gunners 22 points behind leaders Manchester City and out of the title battle, a top four place is the best that the north Londoners can hope for in the league this season, and they will hope to pile further misery on basement club West Brom, who slipped below Swansea yesterday to the bottom of the table.
However, while the match represents the last of 2017 for both sides, Arsenal head into the new year with plenty of concerns surrounding their squad, with Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Özil and Jack Wilshere all out of contract in the summer and fresh reports that he could leave the club as early as next month.
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78' - Chance! Space opens up for Jay Rodriguez on the edge of the penalty area and he opts to shoot, but his effort is straight at Petr Cech and the Arsenal goalkeeper can parry the ball away.
GOAL! West Brom 0-1 Arsenal (McClean, OG)
83' - Alexis Sanchez is fouled just outside the box as he winds up a shot and the Chilean hauls himself up to take the resulting free-kick, bending the ball into the net via a deflection off James McClean.
88' - Penalty to West Brom - and it's a very harsh one! The ball strikes Calum Chambers on the arm from point-blank range and Mike Dean points to the spot.
GOAL! West Brom 1-1 Arsenal (Rodriguez, pen)
89' - Jay Rodriguez stokes the ball down the middle of the goal and that's enough to beat the diving Petr Cech!
West Brom might just have rescued themselves a point.
90' - There will be four additional minutes at the end of the match.
Arsenal take the lead through Alexis Sanchez's deflected free-kick
90+3' - Alexis Sanchez tries to win it at the death for Arsenal but his shot from distance rolls well wide of Ben Foster's near post.
Full-time - West Brom 1-1 Arsenal
The final whistle goes and West Brom have rescued a point here courtesy of Jay Rodriguez's late penalty.
Stay tuned for reaction to the match.
Post-match reaction from Petr Cech
On Mike Dean's decision to award West Brom a late penalty: "He (Chambers) has no chance to react. He has his hands by his side. That will never be a penalty. The referee gives a penalty with two minutes to go so I asked him, 'why?'. Then I got booked so I think this is so disappointing.
"I was not rude, I just asked a question and this disappoints me even more.
"I'm disappointed because of the penalty situation and I expect when I walk towards the referee with respect and ask a question, I expect him to answer to me in a normal way, not give me a yellow card and say nothing."
Quotes from Sky Sports
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