REALITY bites.

And it hurts.

If Albion needed a snapshot of their place in English football then it came on Saturday.

A sobering 3-0 defeat to an Arsenal side who made easy work of their opponents. They could have declared by half-time such was the ease of their victory.

It would be very easy to pick apart Roy Hodgson’s side based on the Emirates visit. But, in reality, Arsenal have been zipping the ball around with confidence for the last few games or so. Roy Hodgson’s men were simply another notch on the gate. Efficient, stylish, pacy, technically adept. Arsenal don’t really have many weaknesses.

That said, Albion didn’t help matters. Aaron Ramsey took the ball forward from the half-way line and found Theo Walcott with a supreme pass. Walcott had already peeled away from Billy Jones sufficiently to leave the Albion man trailing. His angled shot was parried by Ben Foster. The loose ball was claimed by Robin Van Persie.

Walcott was granted way too much room, while Van Persie was simply too swift to be denied.

Goal number two followed.

Alex Song found Van Persie on the far post, who hooked the ball back across the penalty area. Albion watched the ball come across and, notably, Steven Reid didn’t react to Thomas Vermaelen’s run into the box. The defender struck the ball sweetly. Two nil.

Arsenal finished off the job with a sweeping Mikel Arteta strike to finish off a web of passes spun by Van Persie and Tomas Rosicky. The energy of Arsenal’s ball manipulation and movement was impressive, yet Arteta was able to venture without much resistance.

Albion offered little. They had a late chance through a Reid header, which was well held by Wojciech Szczesny. And Graham Dorrans’ long-range and way-ward efforts, though classed as ‘shots’, were struck without venom.

The 3-2 victory of last season might as well have been a lifetime away. Albion lacked intensity from the start. Up front Simon Cox was very limited in impact. That shouldn’t reflect exclusively on his own performance - all too often he was being forced to chase long balls. It was pointless.

Roy Hodgson was critical of his side’s dependancy on panicked, long balls during the first-half particularly. Rightly so. It was all too hurried by Albion who, when confronted by pressure, resorted to rudimentary clearances, rather than more measured use of the ball. Though the intensity of Arsenal’s play didn’t help.