A young Albion XI were beaten 6-0 by Arsenal in the Carabao Cup Second Round on Wednesday night.
Despite a valiant first-half effort from Valérien Ismaël’s team, the Gunners led comfortably at the break thanks to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s brace and a Nicolas Pepe goal.
Bukayo Saka and Alexandre Lacazette then netted either side of Aubameyang completing his hat-trick to ensure they made it through to the competition’s next stage.
In total nine Baggies made their debuts throughout the evening – six in the starting XI and three from the bench.
Albion will return to Sky Bet Championship action this Saturday at Peterborough (ko 8pm).
The boss made 11 changes to his line-up at The Hawthorns, handing debuts to Alex Palmer, Caleb Taylor, Ethan Ingram, Quevin Castro, Tom Fellows and Taylor Gardner-Hickman – with the latter replacing Rayhaan Tulloch shortly before kick-off.
And it was Albion who created the first couple of chances as Tom Fellows forced Aaron Ramsdale into a good save and Adam Reach side-footed wide.
But on 17 minutes Arsenal went in front through Aubameyang, the Gabon international converting from close-range after Alex Palmer stopped Saka’s initial shot.
The inexperienced hosts held their own against their Premier League opponents for the majority of the half until, just ahead of half-time, Aubameyang netted another rebound for his second.
Harshly, they scored again in first period stoppage time when Pepe tapped home at the back post to make it 3-0.
Any chance of a comeback was quickly dashed on 50 minutes – Saka finishing off a slick move for Arsenal’s fourth of the night.
Kenneth Zohore and Gardner-Hickman both saw attempts denied by Ramsdale as Albion continued to push forward, yet Arsenal managed to notch twice more midway through the second-half.
Aubameyang grabbed his third with a curler before substitute Lacazette rounded-off the result – a bright spot for Albion being Mo Faal, Toby King and Rico Richards all coming on to make their Albion debuts in the final 30 minutes.
Albion: Palmer, Kipré, Taylor (Richards 82), Shotton; Ingram, Castro, Snodgrass (King 74), Reach; Fellows, Zohore (Faal 64), Gardner-Hickman.
Substitutes: Cann, Delaney, Malcolm.
Attendance: 17,016 (2,744 away)