Brown Ideye

Brown Ideye’s first-half winner sealed a narrow 1-0 victory for West Brom as Tony Pulis returned to haunt Stoke again.

The striker’s seventh goal of the season settled the game to move the Baggies 11 points clear of the Barclays Premier League relegation zone.

Ex-Potters manager Pulis — who also beat Stoke 1-0 while at Crystal Palace last season — saw Albion recover from back-to-back defeats against Aston Villa.

They were also denied a penalty after Craig Dawson appeared to be fouled in the box and Ideye had a goal disallowed.

Olivier Giroud’s thunderbolt helped Arsenal see off the challenge of West Ham and cement their place in the top four of the Barclays Premier League with a 3-0 victory.

West Ham, who have plummeted down the table following a poor run of results, regrouped for the second half and would have been good value for an equaliser.

However, Arsenal finally broke them down again with nine minutes left when Aaron Ramsey fired in after a neat one-two with Giroud and substitute Mathieu Flamini rolled home a third.

Christian Benteke and Gabriel Agbonlahor scored two goals each to leave Gus Poyet’s job hanging by a thread as Aston Villa thrashed Sunderland 4-0 at the Stadium of Light.

Bottom club Leicester failed to see off Hull after Tom Huddlestone’s sending-off handed them a huge opportunity at the King Power Stadium. The game ended 0-0.

In the lunchtime fixture, Crystal Palace scored three first-half goals at Selhurst Park courtesy of Wilfried Zaha, James McArthur and Joel Ward before a consolation from Queens Park Rangers’ Matt Phillips, which could enter for a contender for goal of the season, in the 80th minute, ended score at 3-1 in favour of the home side.

-Punch