The Arsenal squad on a lap of appreciation after today's win over West Brom at the Emirates Stadium

Published: 4 May, 2014
by RICHARD OSLEY at the Emirates

Barclays Premier League
ARSENAL 1, WEST BROMWICH ALBION 0

THE argument goes that football ticket prices are high but competitive with, say, a night out at a West End theatre. You have to pay for top-class entertainment. 

Of course, it’s a stretched point really, as supporting a football team often means more than an odd treat, in the way most of us would view a night out at the Palladium.

You are also, with the theatre, pretty much guaranteed to see a decent performance. You don’t see actors underperforming in the first half and in need of substituting at half-time.

So, think of the unlucky supporters who shelled out £50 and more to see this stultified season closer at the Emirates. You wonder if some sort of discount cashback could be arranged. In return for the readies, they watched what must rank as one of the dullest matches this crater of a stadium has seen in its short life.

Mesut Ozil in action for Arsenal this afternoon

Of course, when tickets for today’s match were first sold, there may have been a lot riding on the game. But when it came to matchday, Arsenal already knew that they’d finish fourth and only a freaky catastrophe would relegate the visitors. And so it was, that the best of the afternoon sun was lost in a sleepy fixture, not for a moment exciting. 

Fans chatted among themselves, simply waiting for the final whistle and the chance to applaud the team on a lap of appreciation. It’s not difficult to understand. 

Arsenal have the FA Cup final meeting with Hull City looming now and energy is clearly being reserved for then. Few clubs would act differently. 

The game was decided by Olivier Giroud’s 14th-minute header, scored from a corner. Hassled by Jonas Olsson, it was not as if he was unmarked, and the Frenchman, a sort of love-hate striker among the home fans this season, did well to outpower the centre-back. 

There was a post clattered by Lukas Podolski and a free header missed by Kim Kallstrom, who Arsene Wenger afterwards noted will return to Spartak Moscow at the season, but neither side looked clinical and a dull to and fro developed.

Wenger had dreamed earlier in the season that this would be a match where the title chase would still be pulsating through his team’s dressing room. It all fell apart, he said in his post-match press conference, because “in the most important phase of the season, we had too many players out”.

Olivier Giroud celebrates his winning goal for the Gunners

He added that the team had not scored enough goals in “some matches” but that he didn't regret not signing another forward because “the solution does not always lie outside”.

Wenger said: “At the moment you can say Manchester City are in the best position, but because it is so tight all the teams can look back at where they lost two points here or there and shouldn’t have.”

And so the players toured the pitch once the final whistle had sounded in good spirits. Wenger has never had to make that walk without Champions League secured or almost secured. It’s that statistic that led him to say again this afternoon that he plans to still be in the manager’s chair next season. Whether Bacary Sagna, Thomas Vermaelen and Lukasz Fabianski will still be at the club seemed to be a different dilemma as the supporters were waved at.

Unrelated to the contest in hand, there was something else worthy of report, too, aside from the kids' kickabout after the match which saw Sagna’s son beat Mikel Arteta’s in a game of one versus one across the entire pitch.

In the ninth minute, the away fans unfurled a banner which said "Justice for Jeff" and applauded their former striker Jeff Astle. An important campaign, the Baggies’ fans are calling for more research into the possible health problems connected with heading a football. The striker’s family are asking what has happened to a promised 10-year study of head injuries. Astle died, aged 59, with a pathologist finding that he had suffered brain trauma similar to that seen in boxers. With all the discoveries in the United States about how the thuds of American football can potentially cause harm, it doesn’t seem an unreasonable ask.

ARSENAL: Szczesny, Sagna, Monreal (Vermaelen 80), Koscielny, Mertesacker, Flamini, Arteta (Kallstrom 63), Cazorla (Rosicky 70), Ozil, Podolski, Giroud.
Subs not used: Fabianski, Diaby, Sanogo
Attendance: 60,021