TONY Mowbray believes the arrival of Marek Cech helped bring the best out of Paul Robinson in Saturday's season opener at Arsenal.

And, although the Baggies boss was forced to play Cech out of position at right-midfield at the Emirates Stadium, he insists the Slovakia international's versatility will improve his options this term.

"By bringing Marek in I was trying to create competition in all areas of the pitch," said Mowbray.

"It is important that Paul Robinson has genuine competition for his position.

"Maybe the fact that Marek Cech is at the club contributed to the fact that Paul Robinson gave such an outstanding performance on Saturday.

"It might not have been the direct reason but I think competition focuses the mind of every footballer in the team.

"It's important that we have that competition and Marek understands.

"He will get on and do what the manager asks to the very best of his ability because he is a model professional."

Robert Koren (knee) is expected to be in contention for a place against Everton on Saturday (ko 3pm), giving Mowbray more flexibility when it comes to choosing his wide men in the middle of the park.

"I think we have players in the club who can play in a variety of positions," the Albion chief added.

"Robert Koren, Jonathan Greening, Do-heon Kim or James Morrison can play wide left or wide right.

"At the weekend we didn't have the options to do that because we didn't have a midfield player to release one of them.

"We ended up with two left-footers playing wide but the department is well covered by various players."

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