STEVEN HOWARD
AH, Christmas, season of goodwill to all men.
And no one prospered more yesterday than boss Arsene Wenger’s fading Gunners.
Chief recipient of the festive benevolence was Santi Cazorla — or make that Santa Cazorla.
Arsenal punters eating at the Emirates tucked into turkey and all the trimmings, pulled gold crackers and sent corks boomeranging round the restaurants.
To complete a wonderful day, referee Mike Jones fully entered the Christmas spirit as well.
He was in such a generous mood he didn’t award the Gunners one penalty but TWO.
Yet he blundered so badly for the first you could only conclude that a fortifying bottle or two of something to keep out the cold might have been consumed by Jones and his match team.
The game was 26 minutes old when Carzorla turned Steven Reid in the box.
The Spaniard knew what was coming next — a crunching tackle from the West Brom full-back to try and retrieve the situation.
Cazorla was already on his way down when in it came.
Except Reid MISSED.
It was too late for Cazorla, who had his nose deep in the turf.
A referee more on his game than Jones would have booked the Arsenal midfield player for diving.
Instead, Jones pointed to the spot and Mikel Arteta stepped up to drive his penalty straight down the middle.
Can we imagine the song and dance had this happened to Wenger? He’d still be talking about it in the New Year.
Cazorla was at it again just after the break — hurling himself over just inside the box — but this time even Jones spotted it.
Then we came to the second spot-kick. Once again, there was an element of controversy about it.
Not the actual tackle in the box by Chris Brunt on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain that sent the Arsenal winger flying — but a push by the Ox on substitute Goran Popov in the build-up.
Jones, though, was adamant. Once again he pointed to the spot and Arteta did the honours.
Sandwiched between all this was a huge West Brom shout for handball after a cross struck Per Mertesacker on the arm.
But you had the feeling that on a day like this, absolutely nothing was going for the visitors.
And so Arsenal ended a run of just one win in six league games that had seen them drop to 10th.
Mind you, they would have been hard pushed not to beat a West Brom side that was just about the poorest to visit this season. It was their third defeat on the bounce and a fair indication that the early-season bubble has burst.
Steve Clarke’s team didn’t help themselves by failing to put anyone on Arteta to cut out the stream of passes that set up Jack Wilshere and Cazorla.
Yet, but for the referee’s intervention, Arsenal might not even have won this one.
There were encouraging signs for Wenger, Roy Hodgson and all Arsenal and England fans that Wilshere, following a slow-burn return after nine months out, is very much on the way back.
Yes, they had loads of the ball and didn’t use it badly. Except in one vital area — in front of goal. Needless to say, chief culprit in this department was the extraordinary Gervinho.
How Arsenal paid Lille almost £11million for this player is one of the greater wonders of the modern football world.
As early as the fifth minute he was screwing a right-foot shot across the far post.
In the 56th, he gave the appearance of a centre-forward as he rose high to a Kieran Gibbs cross — only to head 12ft wide.
Cries of “Get him off, Wenger” echoed round the stadium.
Four minutes later, it managed to get worse as Gervinho somehow miskicked from three yards.
Not that he was the sole culprit with even Wilshere shooting the wrong side of the upright in the 37th minute.
Then, right at the end, Lukas Podolski joined in the act when he skied the ball when set up by Wilshere.
And what of West Brom’s Liam Ridgewell, caught earlier in the week with his trousers down, doing something we would rather not know about with £20 notes?
He lasted just six minutes after colliding with a goalpost. Fittingly, his speedy comeuppance would occur against the Arse.
But Wenger will be hoping he hasn’t used up all of his Christmas cheer in one go.
Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Wilshere, Arteta, Cazorla (Podolski 87), Oxlade-Chamberlain (Coquelin 77), Gervinho (Rosicky 81), Giroud.
Subs Not Used: Martinez, Ramsey, Squillaci, Jenkinson.
Booked: Giroud, Mertesacker.
Goals: Arteta 26 pen, 64 pen.
West Brom: Myhill, Reid, Olsson, McAuley, Ridgewell (Popov 6), Brunt, Morrison, Mulumbu, Gera (Rosenberg 75), Odemwingie (Lukaku 62), Long.
Subs Not Used: Daniels, Dorrans, Tamas, Fortune.
Booked: Olsson, Brunt, Reid.
Att: 60,083
Ref: Mike Jones (Cheshire).
