Stoke Arsenal Post Match

Meh. I am too sleepy to write much here. You know the drill. Post your views. I'll add my ratings in a bit.

Szczesny - 6
Didn't have much to do, but for that one save of a narrow angle powerful shot off Jerome. Otherwise good enough. Should avoid collisions with key defenders . Can't really blame him for the goal, but you'd normally expect him to dive and make a save.

Sagna - 6
Him and Walcott do very well in tandem. We saw Theo's form dip when Sagna was injured. And when Theo is not ahead of him, he wasn't so effective going forward (imo). But he did okay otherwise.

Koscielny, Vermaelen - 6.5
Its simple, they are our first choice defensive pairing and thats for a reason. Both were okay, but I would have been tempted to rate Vermaelen a bit higher if he hadn't driven wide late on.

Gibbs - 6
I know he is still young but I never feel comfortable when he is at LB. However, he is a good player nonetheless and had a decent game.

Song - 6.5
Nothing spectacular; did some key defending and some key passing (what we expect him to do now) also botched up a few passes early on.

Ramsey - 6
For all the flak he gets, he does reasonably well for a 20 something youngster. Played deeper today and seemed more comfortable there. If that continues to be the case, we would have both him and Jack vying with Arteta and Diaby for the one spot next to Song in the midfield - that would affect us a bit. But one thing is clear, he needs to grow before he can take over from Rosicky.

Gervinho - 6.5
He was bright and the header wasn't so simple. But he should have buried that. However, for some of his sexy dribbles, I give him half a point more than 6.

Rosicky - 7.5
Man of the match performance again. He doesn't have the tank for a 90 minute game, even if he thinks he is '29 in footballing years because of time out injured'. (personally, I can't accept that logic - it would mean Diaby is in his early twenties of something). He will decline, much like Arshavin did this season, and we don't have any replacement for that position.

Benayoun - 6.5
He was pretty good with his passing and showed good understanding with Rosicky and RvP but like Gervs, he should have buried atleast one of the two chances he got - and he missed both. He is a good squaddie, but I don't see him around next season. He won't stick around for such a bit part role.

Van Persie - 7.5
Would have expected him to bury that header early, but Begovic showed good awareness. Nevertheless, it was some great movement and understanding with Rosicky for the equaliser. He is 2 ahead of Rooney now - and I expect that race to be a tough one. Was isolated a bit, otherwise, imo.


SUBS:

Diaby - 5.5
I half expected him to do some magic, but it seemed more to shore up the defense with Song. He did okay there. That highboot was hilarious. Nothing significant otherwise. If he is limping again, I would reduce his rating to 3 or something. :/

Chamakh - 6.5
Looked bright and had a few good touches. Shame he is having a goal drought but I want him to keep his confidence intact somehow and be patient and work hard in training. He is still important to our set-up, given Park is unused and Vela and Bendtner want out. Chamakh's importance shot up right there. Can't blame him if he wants out too though.

Santos - n/a
Nothing significant in the last 10 minutes or so. I could understand Chamakh substitution, but not Santos. Weird. Its a Wenger thing.


Special mention to Stoke fans. What a classy lot!

:vagi:

It's a useful point, since Newcastle lost. We know Stoke is a hard place for any team to play and I thought we played really well. The only we really lacked is that cutting edge to create one or two more clear cut opportunities.

As it stands, I'm content with the result and happy with the performance. The annoying thing about this race for 3rd and 4th is the games in hand that Newcastle, Spurs and Chelsea have on us which will, thankfully, be gone by the time we play Norwich next Saturday.

Norwich at home and West Brom away are games we should win, but those games in hand are enabling the other three to keep us on our toes so you never what may happen.

I thought everyone played really well today, especially Rosicky. Van Persie scored finally, and Song and Ramsey did the gritty things well while Rosicky pulled the strings. Benayoun linked up well and Gervinho's performance was mixed, but lively at least. Back four and keeper excellent as well.

Game of two halves, first half we played well but we were average in the second. We had tons of chances in first half but we din't take them Gervinho

Decent point but if you look at the way we battered them in the first half you have to be dissapointed not to come back with the 3 points.We need to batter Norwich next week with 2 or 3 goals

finally goal from open play

just that happened that shouldnt and they pushed deeper and deeper by time going
had we just taken one of chances in 1st half we could rape them bleeps

Arsene Wenger: " I don't think that you can be especially proud to boo Aaron Ramsey because I don't see what he's done wrong"

Did the fans boo Ramsey, because that would be damn disrespectful - he had a good game. As I said in the live thread, we played pretty well in the first half but couldn't do the same in the second one and thankfully we didn't concede more. Only not mad at this point because Newcastle lost otherwise this could've been much much more worse.

Yes, a section of Stoke fans were boo'ing Ramsey. It's completely nonsensical but hey, this is Stoke we're talking about. Probably the scummiest club in the division.

First post updated. I left it for Jay to do the analysis bit, which he did in the second post. I just gave my ratings and reasons. Feel free to comment.

Note: If you feel that the ratings are on the lower side for some players, its probably because I am pissed we didn't win this. Its been so long since we shoved it to that lot in their stadium. And I hate their fans and their manager, Tony Pu(li)ssy whatever.

I hate Stoke.. Team with no sportman spirit.. Neither the manager nor the players.. And fans too.. All f*s..
And about the game..
Decent point won.. We played good and deserved to win.. We let in a really soft goal early.. But we had proved that we can comeback this season.. And thats what we did.. Could have done better with the chances.. But with Newcastle getting battered by Wigan, Wenger took a defensive approach was happy to play for a point.. And its not a bad result in this situation..
Sczeny 7.. Commanding performance.. I feel he had no chance with the goal..
Sagna 6.. Silent game for him..
Koscielny 7.. Did well against the bodyplay of Stoke
Vermaelen 6.. Good game.. He shoots like bullet.. Wishing to see him score from a freekick..
Gibbs 6.. Great game offensively..
Song 6.. Nothing spectacular today..
Ramsey 6.. Average.. Happy that he didnt frustrate as usual.. Lol..
Rosicky 7.. Man of match.. Full of energy in first half.. Tired to make any impact in 2nd..
Benayoun 7.. Great performance.. Hardworking.. But no end product..
Gervinho 6.. Better game.. And again no end product..
Van Persie 7.. Got into good positions.. And draught is over.. He is back..

Chamakh 6, Diaby 6 and Santos 6.. We were playing for a draw..they held the ball well..
And i cant forget to mention this.. I never missed Walcott at all.. And less frustrated today..:clap:

Game of 2 halves indeed.

In the first we didn't take our chances and could have easily scored 3 goals. Credit to Begovic for making 3 huge saves.

Second half was just average, nothing really to make note of.

Sagna was at fault for the goal for his giveaway, but he made up for it brilliantly with that goal line clearance off the Delap throw in late in the game.

I'm happy with the point, Newcastle losing does help, but they'll still be 1 point behind if they win their game, so next week is a must win.

Happy with a point considering that they had a few chances to hammer us. Booing Ramsey was absolutely disgraceful and cheering Koscielny going to ground, distasteful. If only RVPs headers had been buried, we'd have the 3 points.


I thought Song played terrific, as did Benayoun who could have scored.

Next 2 games. Must-win. Like every other game of the season, lol.

We should have won it, but happy with a point since poor Newcastle lost. I thought everyone played well and glad RVP got scoring sheet.

ramsey had a decent game FINALLY!


the biggest disappointment was the ending result and seeing diaby gingerly walk off of the pitch our team came to play though, solid effort

Is Diaby injured again?!!

Will write up my feelings shortly.

So as I am refurbishing house at the minute, I was only able to catch bits and pieces of the stream on my laptop! Still, I saw the most important parts and all the chances, as well as Match of the Day.

Pleased with our defensive display I must say. We dealt relatively well with Stoke's 'alternative' tactics. Really thought they were going to score at the end when Sagna cleared off the line. Heart was in mouth then.

Going forward, I thought Rosicky (again) and Benayoun were very good, whilst, final third aside Gervinho had his best game in a little while. After a good introduction against Chelsea last weekend too, hopefully he is returning to his best for the final 2 games.

Crouch goal: A good cross and a good header. Quite simple. Hard to defend against Crouch in the air, I guess stopping the cross should have been the target. Maybe we could have done better there.

RVP goal: Great effort from Benayoun to win the ball back, superb cross from Rosicky and a good finish from Van Persie at the back post. I wish he did this last week against Chelsea after Walcott's free-kick.

Wigan's destruction of Newcastle helped us, but the main thing is: Win last 2 league games and 3rd is ours. Guaranteed.