Sam Allardyce And Rafa Benitez
Sam Allardyce was left ‘bitterly disappointed’ that West Brom weren’t able to take their relegation fight to the final day of the season. Albion’s fate, the threat of relegation that has hung over them for the vast majority of the season, was sealed on Sunday evening when they were felled 3-1 by Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Despite the magic of Matheus Pereira at one end, Albion were undone by Emile Smith-Rowe, Nicolas Pepe and Willian at the other.
Sam Allardyce said: “It’s not sunk in yet, but I’m sure I’ll wake up tomorrow and realise the situation. I’m bitterly disappointed we’re not still in the fight. I’m not saying we would have avoided relegation but we should have been closer, we should have taken it down to the last three games, based on how we performed. The creating of chances has been there but the converting has not. We had time to pull it round. “Our real problem was not beating the bottom-six sides when we came up against them. The results against Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City should have been bonus points.”
Captain Kyle Bartley was equally distraught. The centre half, who has been a player that Allardyce has relied upon for the majority of his tenure, has now challenged his teammates to end the season on something of a high despite their season being mathematically concluded.
Kyle Bartley said: “Massively disappointed. It is time to focus on these next three games, get as much momentum as possible to make sure we come straight back up next season. I am really proud of the way the boys kept going. It would have been so easy to fold out there and lost four or five nil but everyone kept going. Hopefully we can get the manager situation sorted out as soon as possible. We need to try and take as much momentum into next season as possible.”
