Match Review: Stoke RFC 1 Arsenal 0 - Premier League 01.03.14

Arsenal’s poor form at the Britannia Stadium continued as the Gunner’s abject performance resulted in a 1-0 defeat. Truly, I don’t think we deserved to lose the game, Stoke weren’t exactly all over us and didn’t really play better than us. They got the decisions though. While the main fault lies squarely with us, the referee gave Stoke three gifts that ultimately decided the game. Chelsea winning and Man City now having two games in hand on us means it’s a huge blow to our title hopes. Couple that with Liverpool’s result at Southampton and it’s already a weekend to forget.

The team news was slightly surprising in that not only did Gibbs start having reportedly been out of the game with injury, but so did Podolski and Rosicky, meaning no space for Özil or Chamberlain. It meant both the starting line-up and bench looked strong going into a traditionally horrid fixture.

The first half started with Stoke dominating the possession. We eventually managed to assert ourselves in the game, but it took a good twenty minutes and that set the tone for the game. We didn’t show the urgency and intent needed to dominate the game. It just dissolved into a stand off between the two sides, both pressing each other and making no real inroads. Having said that, we had the two best chances of the half. First Podolski got free on the left hand side of the area, but sliced his shot when he really should have done much better. The second came when we had two on one on the left hand side, but Cazorla chose to shoot instead of playing in Podolski and the keeper made an easy save. The first half also saw the first of Stoke’s gifts from the referee.

Giroud stretched to win the ball and succeeded. In the process, he was hit heavily from behind and also very clearly stamped on by Glenn Whelan. It was a nasty, unnecessary tackle that could have quite easily left the Frenchman with a broken leg. What punishment then? Red card for what can only be described as a violent and dangerous tackle? Yellow? At the very least a free kick to Arsenal right? Nope. Freekick to Stoke. I could maybe understand if the referee didn’t catch the stamp, but how he managed to rationalise a free kick to Stoke I’ll never know. It should definitely be looked at and if the referee saw it and still gave a Stoke free kick, he should consider finding a new occupation.

Arsenal were the better team in the second half, but failed to make anything of their possession. Our build up was slow and our movement off the ball was non-existent. It was uninspiring stuff, but we should have been handed an advantage when Charlie Adam became the latest player to assault Giroud. The striker was left on the floor after laying the ball off, but while he was there and with the ball miles away Adam took the opportunity to stamp on the striker. This one was more blatant and callous than the first, but yet again, none of the officials spotted it. It has to be looked at by the FA, there was malicious intent, a desire to cause pain and injury and Adam has got a lot of previous. He’s got away with these horrific ‘tackles’ in the past, surely he can’t get away with this. If any of the officials saw it and saw no reason for action then, again, I’d encourage them to find an alternative career path.

The referee then rounded off a hat trick of poor calls by awarding a penalty to Stoke with 15 minutes left. The ball bounced between Walters and Koscielny and Walters nicked the ball onto Koscielny’s hand. The defender’s hands were raised, but only in a natural way for what he was trying to do. As Wenger said after the game, you’ll see hundreds of those not given, it was extremely harsh, especially considering that he’d let a lot go. Inevitably, Walters took the penalty and scored it. A hammer blow, with very little chance to respond.

Özil and Chamberlain were introduced and Özil went close with eight minutes left. Chamberlain looked lively, but with Stoke now in full defensive mode, it looked increasingly desperate. Our last role of the dice was putting on Sanogo in place of Wilshere. It therefore conspired that the golden chance fell to him. Chamberlain did brilliantly to reach a ball in space on the right and his cutback fell for Sanogo. The youngster had time and space eight yards out, but ballooned the ball over the bar. With thirty seconds left, that was the chance to rescue a point. The best opportunity of the whole game and the manner in which it was passed up summed up our day. The defeat means that Chelsea are four ahead now and City are one behind with two games in hand. Liverpool have also capitalised and have now drawn level on points with us, ahead on goal difference. Ahead of a hugely difficult run, it has the potential to wreck what has been such a promising season. The players will need to pick themselves up quickly or we risk falling well short of where we could’ve been.

Fun fact

Arsenal have not had a single player sent off against them this season.

Teams

Stoke (4-5-1)
Begovic, Cameron, Shawcross, Wilson (Y), Pieters (Y), Wheelan, N’Zonzi, Adam (Ireland 73’), Walters, Arnautovic (Etherington 88’), Crouch (Y)
Subs
Muniesa, Palacios, Guidetti, Etherington, Wilkinson, Sørensen, Ireland

Arsenal (4-2-3-1)
Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Arteta, Wilshere (Sanogo 81’), Rosicky (Y) (Chamberlain 74’), Cazorla, Podolski (Özil 66’), Giroud
Subs
Fabianski, Vermaelen, Özil, Chamberlain, Flamini, Sanogo, Gnabry

Player Ratings

Szczesny - 6/10 - Wasn’t called on to do anything and the goal wasn’t his fault
Sagna - 6/10 - Did his job adequately, but like the rest he didn’t make an impact
Mertesacker - 6/10 - Mostly untroubled and solid
Koscielny - 5/10 - Could have won the ball before Walters, but the penalty was harsh
Gibbs - 6/10 - Could have probably done more going forward, not troubled at the back
Arteta - 6/10 - Did his best to keep the midfield ticking over but was pressed mercilessly
Wilshere - 5/10 - Didn’t contribute enough to the attack really
Podolski - 5/10 - Had a pretty poor game, missed a big chance
Cazorla - 5/10 - Again, poor going forward, didn’t trouble the Orc defence
Rosicky - 6/10 - Worked really hard, but couldn’t inject life into our attack
Giroud - 5/10 - Kicked and stamped out of the game
Subs
Özil - 6/10 - Couldn’t make much of an impact but created a chance for himself late on
Chamberlain - 6/10 - Hindsight is 20/20, but with the lack of pace, he should have started
Sanogo - 5/10 - Only young and inexperienced, but fluffed a huge chanc

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