Baggies red and buried; ARSENAL 2 ALBION 0 By Chris Lepkowski.

SO it wasn't too painful for Albion after all.

Horror stories of grown men being taught a lesson by children from Arsenal's finishing school meant Albion's visit to the Emirates came with a chilling prematch advisory.

Yet it was only a solitary first-half drama, that being the dismissal of Jerome Thomas, which altered the path of the game.

Otherwise it was fairly even with Albion showing they were more than capable of bullying the north London superbrats.

Sanchez Watt and Carlos Vela scored second-half goals after Thomas had got himself a red card for striking Jack Wilshere in the face.

Wilshere, a tremendous talent, showed why Arsene Wenger has yet to fully trust him - he reacted as if struck by an iron bar.

Thomas will serve a three-match ban for the moment of madness, which stemmed from a clumsy collision with the young Arsenal midfielder.

His initial reaction was to stretch out his hand to try and pick Wilshere up.

The teenager responded with a mouthful of verbals. Corporal punishment might have worked 30 years ago - it never did any of us any harm - but you can't go raising your hand to a kid these days, no matter how vile the brat is and, as a result, the Baggies man was forced to take the walk.

Thomas' actions ruined what had otherwise been another lively display.

Crucially, with left-siders Marek Cech, Joe Mattock and Chris Brunt injured, Thomas was pretty much assured a clear run in the starting line-up for the next week or so.

That chance will go to someone else. For instance, Gonzalo Jara, making his debut at left-back, left a more productive impression on Roberto Di Matteo.

His opening minutes, occupying a role which isn't his favoured, were nervy but he reacted swiftly. He acclimatised to the pace of the game without any fuss.

What was also soon apparent is that Jara reads the game and holds his position well. Whether the left or right foot is favoured we've yet to know - he looked capable with both.

But his efforts and those of his ten, and subsequently nine, teammates weren't enough.

Shame really as Albion had looked positive from the start. Thomas took on Kieran Gibbs in the 11th minute and looked to be away from the young left-back only to be brought down.

In the 17th minute, Filipe Teixeira brought Graham Dorrans' pass under control.

He rolled it into Robert Koren's path but the Slovenian's low leftfooted shot curled just away from Wojciech Szczesny's left-hand post.

Arsenal came to life at the other end. Wilshere exchanged passes with Gibbs before sending in a low cross for Sanchez Watt.

His shot hit the base of the post before rolling into the Dean Kiely's hands. Relief for the visitors.

Simon Cox, lively throughout his time on the field, went close with a shot but was denied by the Polish keeper's save with the energetic Koren then seeing his shot deflected away.

That was pretty much Albion's best spell.

Then came the moment referee Lee Mason sent Thomas away with a bar of soap, flannel and a preheated bath towel.

The 10-man Baggies maintained their shape after the break, with Cox and Moore alternating as the furthest man forward but it was futile.

The ball wasn't sticking at the top and, when it did, there weren't enough bodies loitering near to Arsenal's penalty area.

Youssouf Mulumbu came on and picked up where he'd left off following his excellent performance at Middlesbrough but it wasn't enough to deny Arsenal's opening goal.

Substitute Carlos Vela smashed a low shot which Kiely parried. The ball fell for for Sanchez Watt, who slotted in the rebound long before anyone else knew what was happening.

And Vela made it two in the 77th minute. Mark Randall tried to beat Kiely with a lobbed shot.

The ball struck the bar, Barnett tried to chest it down for Kiely but Vela sneaked in to finish off the chance.

It was unfortunate for Barnett who had one of those games so commonly associated with his Albion career.

His long legs enable him to claw the ball away with vital challenges and excellent tackles - yet you always get the nagging feeling that an error isn't far away.

It was hard luck on Barnett, who, when left to basic defending, is perhaps Albion's best tackler among the back-line - it's only his distribution and decision-making which lets him down.

So Albion go out. Not a major surprise but - cliche alert - it allows them to nail some more points towards their promotion challenge.

It's just a shame that, following Thomas' sending-off, Di Matteo has one selection poser he could really have done without.

ARSENAL (4-4-2): Szczesny, Gilbert, Senderos, Silvestre, Gibbs, Wilshere, Coquelin (Randall 58), Ramsey, Traore, Watt, Sanu (Vela 58). Not used: Shea (gk), Barazite, Bartley, Eastmond, Frimpong.

ALBION (4-4-2): Kiely 6, Zuiverloon 6, Barnett 6, Olsson 7 (Meite 80), Jara 7, Thomas 6, Dorrans 7, KOREN 8, Teixeira 6, Cox 7 (Mulumbu 62, 7), Moore 6 (Wood 75, 5). Not used: Carson (gk), Martis, Bednar, Reid.

Referee: L Mason (Lancashire).

CAPTION(S):

Hit and miss: Simon Cox gets in a shot despite the efforts of Mikael Silvestre. Close control: Albion's Robert Koren rides a challenge from Arsenal's Philippe Senderos. Foul play: Simon Cox remonstrates with Mikael Silvestre and Jack Wilshere of Arsenal after seeing his team mate Jerome Thomas sent off by referee Lee Mason.