It was Aaron Ramsey that made the decisive killer pass. Reading Walcott’s inwards movement, the young Welsh captain pinged a fizzing pass inside the full back into Walcott’s path. With the goalkeeper coming out to close down Walcott’s angles, I thought the better option would have been the cut back but as it turned out his shot rebounded into the path of van Persie to stab in from close

Having been severely burnt by our start of this season, I was almost preparing myself for another set back. Perhaps the nightmare of West Brom at the Emirates was still prominent in my mind. But I needn’t have concerned myself, especially when I had a good look at the team sheet before kick off.

Arsene fielded his strongest available side and not many people would be able to argue against that right now. All eyes were on the central defensive partnership or more to the point, who would partner Thomas Vermaelen. The rested Koscielny from midweek was Arsene’s preferred choice, Arsene explained post match that he thought that the speedy and mobile Peter Odemwingie would play so Koscielny’s game would be more suited.

The pattern of the game became evident from the first whistle, our defence pushed up the pitch and closed West Brom inside their own half, the away side started with a 4-5-1 formation and organised themselves behind the ball, we kept the ball moving well and had to be patient.

It was Aaron Ramsey that made the decisive killer pass. Reading Walcott’s inwards movement, the young Welsh captain pinged a fizzing pass inside the full back into Walcott’s path. With the goalkeeper coming out to close down Walcott’s angles, I thought the better option would have been the cut back but as it turned out his shot rebounded into the path of van Persie to stab in from close range. Right place, right time for the best striker in the Premier league.

Laurent Koscielny and Thomas Vermaelen were very sharp and aggressive in winning the ball when West Brom tried to play through us. It would have been a hard enough task as it was let alone without Shane Long and Peter Odemwingie.

Former Gunner Jerome Thomas posed the biggest threat but found it much more difficult to make the chances that he made last season. He had one half hearted appeal when he ran into Koscielny in the penalty area but that was pretty much it for the tricky wide man.

Five minutes before half time we struck once more, Alex Song’s long sweeping pass found van Persie at the far post, he knocked the ball back across goal, Gervinho missed the ball but Thomas Vermaelen striding in at the far post did not and his left footed placed shot curled away from Ben Foster. First league start of the season and he is already off the mark.

After the break, Vermaelen came close to getting his second goal of the game, darting to the near post to meet van Persie’s corner but his header sailed just wide of the far post. How many times do we have corner kicks crossed into the first post that is easily cleared away?

It is remarkable that other players have not followed Vermaelen’s lead. Perhaps it was all the watching from the stands during his injury that did it for the classy Belgian defender.

Dorrans had a long range strike fly wide just before the hour mark and the football that created the chance was very good. I spoke about it last night but the pressing and hard work off the ball to try and win it back was great to see. Look back at that passage of play and watch the nonstop running to deny West Brom time and space on the ball.

Perhaps it is a consequence of having both Vermaelen and Koscielny on the pitch, We are able to play further up the pitch making the space smaller for Arsenal to press without tiring us out too much. Our game has to adjust a little more when Mertesacker is in the team.

Aaron Ramsey had the chance to score, much like his goal against West Ham a few years ago with his left foot. It was Eduardo who created that chance but it was Gervinho who carved out this opening. Cutting inside his man and threading a pass into Ramsey who took a touch and fired narrowly wide on his left side.

Gervinho then created a chance for Alex Song who struck at Ben Foster instead of finding a corner of the net. It was great to see four or five Arsenal players in the penalty area on that attack. I also noticed that Gervinho was getting into central positions when the ball was under Walcott or Jenkinson’s spell on the right side of the pitch. If we can continue this then van Persie will not be our only goal scorer.

Rosicky and Benayoun came on for Ramsey and Gervinho, probably to increase our possession and kill the game off. Two minutes later the game was well and truly killed off. The best was saved till last. A wonderful exchange of passes between Vermaelen – van Persie – Rosicky and once again van Persie who laid the ball off to Arteta on the edge of the area to stroke the ball into the corner first time.

With ten minutes to go, West Brom finally saw the whites of Szczesny’s eyes. Substitute Tchoyi beat the offside trap and ran in on goal, as he steadied himself to shoot, Thomas Vermaelen sprinted back into position and as Wenger Boy put it on Twitter, appeared to slow down time, slide into place and speed time back up to normal. Tchoyi shot rebounded off Vermaelen’s already dangled leg. We have missed his desire and commitment to win. Excellent defending.

So the run continues, three more points on the board, confidence growing, partnerships are getting better and better and the team has shown a combination of hard work as well as our football getting back to its decisive best.

Man of the match: Robin van Persie