Albion captain Jonathan Greening has hailed the impact of lone striker Ishmael Miller in the Baggies’ creditable 1-0 defeat at Arsenal.

The visitors rarely went close to scoring but Miller’s pace and power was a constant headache for centre-backs William Gallas and Johan Djourou.

It was his powerful surge forward that led to Albion’s closest miss, when Paul Robinson’s shot was cleared off the line by Djourou.

Greening said: “Ishmael is a big, strong boy, he’s fast and Gallas knew he’d been in a game on Saturday.

“He’s hard to knock off the ball, a bit like (Emmanuel) Adebayor really. He did very well, he carried on going. He got stuck in, dug in and showed our team spirit.

“The gaffer has always said what an important player he is for us. If he can get off the mark early doors, hopefully with a hat-trick against Everton, then all well and good.”

Greening was full of praise for the whole team, after they refused to cave in following Samir Nasri’s early opening goal for the home side.

The skipper said: “After going a goal down early doors we could have crumbled but we showed great team spirit to get back into the game.

“We tried to pass the ball as well as we could to create problems. Ishmael had a few chances, ‘Robbo’ had one cleared off the line and Roman Bednar came on and created havoc. By the end of the game, Arsenal knew they’d had to work hard for their win.”

Greening admits that Arsenal’s flying start to the match had the potential to blow the Baggies away.

He said: “I don’t think we came out slowly, but they were flying. After they went 1-0 up we became more compact and shut our door a bit.

“The main thing is that we carried on until the end, where we could have been 3-0 or 4-0 down. In that respect we did wel. The second half was much better and we had some chances.

“We’re disappointed we didn’t get a point and we certainly didn’t disgrace ourselves.”

Greening is also impressed with the first Premier League performance of midfield colleague Kim Do-Heon, who has emerged as a key member of the squad in the absence of the injured Robert Koren.

Greening said: “Kim is an international player so he won’t have been overawed by Saturday’s game at the Emirates, which he certainly proved.

“We have a good squad for the basis of a good campaign. Hopefully we can get our home form gong against a good Everton squad.

“There are a few players in the squad who will do well and we have Filipe Teixeira to come back, who will be like a new signing.”