West Brom boss proud of players

Sep 23 2009 by Chris Lepkowski

ROBERTO Di Matteo was 'proud' of his West Brom players' performance at the Emirates Stadium.

The Baggies put up a decent show against Arsenal, despite being reduced to 10 men following Jerome Thomas' dismissal.

Di Matteo felt his side had enough chances to have caused a shock against Arsene Wenger's men.

“I’m very proud of my players," he said.

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“I felt just before the sending-off we were getting on top of the game and we had a good chance to win.

“But they played well and won so congratulations to them.”

Di Matteo accepted that Albion's night was not helped by Thomas' sending off for striking Jack Wilshere.

While accepting that referee Lee Mason had no choice, Di Matteo refused to openly criticise his player.

“It was a red card," he added.

“My player went to shake the Arsenal player’s hand and he refused, and he reacted.

“There was an exchange of words and then he reacted. I do know what was said but it’s not important.