Too little too late for Arsenal as Alexis Sanchez shines

Arsenal 2 West Bromwich Albion 0.

According to the official attendance, 59,568 fans filed into the Emirates Stadium to see Arsenal ease past West Brom thanks to two first-half goals from Alexis Sanchez. In reality, however, the true figure was several thousand fewer judging by the number of empty seats on view in the 60,432 capacity stadium.

Official attendances are based on tickets sold and not the number of supporters entering the ground, and clearly a good number of Arsenal fans stuck to their guns and stayed away in order to register their disquiet at another season that's ended without a league title.

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"I don't know why the fans stayed away," replied Arsene Wenger when asked for this thoughts on the rows of empty seats. "It's Thursday night, it's not easy and I do not want to comment on that. I'm commenting on football."

In the opinion of the Arsenal manager his side "did the job in a serious way", and the victory - only the Gunners sixth league win this year - moves them into third, two points clear of Manchester City, who they play on 8 May, and four more than Manchester United.

"We are in a position where it depends on us to finish in the top three but we want more and we have to fight to do that and if possible do more," said Wenger.

The Frenchman is having a flight of fancy if he believes Arsenal have any chance of winning the title with just four games to go (Leicester are ten points clear and Tottenham five), but he can at least relieve some of the pressure on his own position if his side finish the season strongly.

"It was important to win just because we want to do as well as we can and finish as high as we can," he said on an evening when Arsenal won their 500th Premier League game, the second team to reach the milestone after Manchester United.

It was a small statistic of satisfaction for Wenger in his 20th year as Arsenal manager but he admitted that their recent form has not been good enough. "Of course we have regrets," he told reporters. "We had two draws when we should have won the game several times and when you do that you pay for it."

Arsenal owed their victory to Alexis Sanchez. The Chilean was far and away the best player on display and when he swivelled and shot past Ben Foster in the Baggies goal on six minutes the result never really looked in doubt.

West Brom did hit the crossbar midway through the first half when Gareth McAuley put his head to Darren Fletcher's corner, but when Sanchez drilled home a free-kick from just outside the area on 38 minutes it was game over. Wenger described Sanchez's performance as "exceptional" and it's just a shame for Arsenal that they don't have more players with his skill and desire. If they had, Arsenal might be first and not third.