Kieran Gibbs’ performance against QPR showed why Moore was desperate to keep him
Kieran Gibbs left Arsenal to join West Brom in 2017 after spending 13 years with the North London club. Despite strong interest in the 28-year-old over the summer, the Baggies were able to keep the former England international at the Hawthorns as they dropped into the Championship following a disappointing season in the Premier League.
West Brom’s boss Darren Moore will now be ecstatic that the fight to keep hold of Gibbs was successful, after the left-back’s impressive performance on Saturday in their thumping 7-1 home victory over a poor Queens Park Rangers side.
It took almost half an hour for the Baggies to open the scoring through on-form winger Matt Phillips and initially QPR responded well to going behind, netting the equaliser just five minutes later as Joel Lynch turned home Matt Smith’s knock down.
However, Gibbs’ goal just after half-time opened the floodgates. Playing at left wing-back, the Englishman was alert in the box to react first after Harvey Barnes’ shot bounced back off the post and into his path. Gibbs smashed in the rebound to net his first goal since scoring the equaliser in a North London Derby in November 2015.
QPR’s collapse seemed inevitable just three minutes later as Jay Rodriguez netted the first of his two penalties after Dwight Gayle was brought down in the box. Gayle then grabbed one for himself after some calamitous defending allowed Gibbs to get in behind and square the ball for the on-loan Newcastle man.
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Rodriguez’s second penalty, another from Matt Phillips and a stoppage time tap-in from Hal Robson-Kanu put the cherry on top of a fantastic attacking performance from Moore’s men.
For a defender to be one of the stand-out performers in that kind of display is certainly unusual, but Gibbs’ willingness to get forward will give QPR’s young right-back Osman Kakay nightmares for the next week.
The former Arsenal man was a constant threat going forward and provided six crosses from his 75 touches on the ball. He also made three tackles as the Baggies pressed and hounded Steve McClaren’s men, especially in the second half as they netted six goals in a crazy 40 minutes of Championship football.
Gibbs’ goal and assist were just reward for his work-rate and also his wider decision to stick with the West Midlands club in the second tier of English football. With a few more team performances like that over the course of this season there is no doubt that Moore will have West Brom competing for promotion again.
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