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Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger’s record-breaking day as Arsenal manager ended in frustration as his disjointed side were held to a controversial 1-1 draw at West Bromwich Albion yesterday. The Frenchman took charge of his 811th Gunners league game, taking him past Alex Ferguson’s Premier League record of 810.

But his side were denied victory by Jay Rodriguez’s 89th-minute penalty, awarded for handball against Calum Chambers to the fury of Wenger and his players. Arsenal had taken the lead six minutes earlier after a deflected Alexis Sanchez free-kick found its way into the West Brom net via a deflection off James McClean.

The Gunners had been frustrated for much of the game by a resolute Albion. Arsenal made the brighter start but might have found themselves trailing to the first chance of the game on six minutes. A weaving run down the right flank by Matt Phillips ended with a cross for Rodriguez, who leapt highest but headed too close to Petr Cech and the Arsenal goalkeeper made a solid save, diving to his left.

Cech handed the Baggies another chance moments later when he spilled a high cross by Kieran Gibbs at the feet of Hal Robson-Kanu. The Wales striker’s effort was blocked and Arsenal then snuffed out Jake Livermore’s effort to keep the move alive.

That sparked an Arsenal counter-attack as the Gunners worked the ball to the edge of the area, where Alexandre Lacazette hit a shot that deflected wide. And on 16 minutes a neat pass by Sanchez found Alex Iwobi, who wriggled away from Jonny Evans and bent a shot just past the angle of post and crossbar.

Pep Guardiola

West Brom continued to pass the ball neatly but the Gunners threatened on the break and a long-range effort by Granit Xhaka was saved comfortably by Ben Foster, who then turned another shot from distance from Iwobi behind for a corner.

While Ederson’s last-gasp penalty heroics saved Manchester City from defeat but a 0-0 stalemate at Crystal Palace brought the Premier League leaders’ record-breaking 18-match winning run to an end. Luka Milivojevic was presented with the chance to seal a memorable victory for Roy Hodgson’s relegation-threatened side when Wilfried Zaha was brought down by Raheem Sterling in injury time.

But the Palace midfielder struck his spot-kick too close to Ederson, allowing the City goalkeeper to preserve his side’s 21-game unbeaten start to the league campaign. City’s failure to score in a league game for the first time since last April meant they fell short in their bid to equal Bayern Munich 19-game winning run of four years ago, the longest in Europe’s five major leagues, set under their current boss Pep Guardiola.

And City’s afternoon was further soured when Kevin De Bruyne was stretchered off immediately after the spot-kick following an ugly challenge by Palace substitute Jason Puncheon. Guardiola, who also said forward Gabriel Jesus was likely to be out for up to two months after an injury early in the game, called for referees to take firm action.

“Please, referees, they have to protect players,” he said. “We were lucky against Tottenham and against Newcastle. Today we were not lucky. Referees have to protect. We know how strong physically it is England but teams miss big players, not just Manchester City. The replay speaks for itself. We have to protect players.” — AFP.