Arsenal 3 - 1 Stoke City: Robin van Persie to the resuce again

Today we found ourselves in the unusal situation of playing on a Sunday but not being live on tv. While the Manchester derby obviously takes prescedence when it comes to lived televised matches, it sure did making a decent live stream difficult to find.

What's more, every stream I did find kept buffering every few seconds. All the while, Arsenal were struggling to slay the Orc Army of Stoke-on-Trent...

Overall, the game wasn't one for the neutrals. Stoke matched our 4-3-3 formation and were looking to soak up pressure and score via a set-piece. As a result, we had the majority of the ball. Unfortunately, we didn't really do much with it. Stoke were typically well-organised in defence and made it difficult for us to penetrate them.

The scoring was opened by some very good play from Arsenal. Gervinho's goal was probably our most well-contructed goal this season so far. A couple of quick passes before Ramsey played a lovely ball over the top to Gervinho, who made no mistake one-on-one with Begovic. His first goal at the Emirates and second for the club.

Stoke were hardly a threat in open play, but with their strength at set-pieces and our weakness, it was always going to be a likely way for them to score. Lo and behold, a generous freekick awarded by Lee Mason for Koscielny's non-existent foul on Peter Crouch was eventually scored by said bean-pole. To be fair, the actual routine of the free-kick was inventive and very good, but our marking was poor. Walters beat two players in the air, while no one picked up Crouch at the edge of the six yard bos waiting for an easy tap in.

Just minutes afterwards, Chamakh was wrestled down to the ground by Wilkinson, but no penalty was given when it should have been. That summed up a very frustrating couple of minutes.

The quality of football dropped in the second half. Arsenal's passing was poor and they could not build any attacks, while Stoke were perfectly content to sit back and play for a point. The game was crying out for someone of real quality to come on and change things, and with Chamakh stinking up the place up front, it's no wonder the Arsenal fans were chanting "Robin van Persie".

Wenger eventually did bring on the Dutchman for the very disappointing Chamakh and Arsenal immediately looked a better side. Looking more lively, Arsenal took the lead again after some good work from Gervinho on the right found van Persie waiting to tap it in.

And van Persie wrapped up the scoring with another close range effort. Gervinho, again, providing the assist after Arshavin played him in with a great pass.

Conclusion
It was not the best performance, and the clear reliance on van Persie to win us games is worrying, but at the end of the day we followed up mid-weeks result in France with another win. That's all you can ask for, really.

This win is now our 6th in 7 games and with it we go up to 7th in the table, two points behind Liverpool in 5th and 6 behind Newcaslte in 4th. There's obviously a long way to go, but with 6 wins in 7 games, and 15 goals scored (in all comps, of course), we're approaching a little thing called form. With an away trip to Chelsea next Saturday, it's important to have at least some form and confidence.

Player Ratings
Wojciech Szcznezy - 6
Per Mertesacker - 6
Laurent Koscieny - 7
Johan Djourou - 6
Andre Santos - 7
Alex Song - 6
Mikel Arteta - 6
Aaron Ramsey - 7
Theo Walcott - 6
Gervinho - 8
Marouance Chamakh - 5
--------------------
Emmanuel Frimpong - n/a
Andrey Arshavin - 6
Robin van Persie - 8

Van Persie saves us again.

Got some comments, but all my focus is now on the United battering :D:D

good day for us.....Beating stoke and watching man u get their as handed...

Van Persie

Gervinho

Walcott and Chamakh

I've been sick of Chamakh for a long time. It's time to test Park.

Samuelj29060 wrote:Van Persie

Gervinho

Walcott and Chamakh

chamack had a few easy chances to scored the easiest being the header from point blank range from the corner. my cat could score tht and i dont even have a cat!

I *bleep* love RVP








That is all.

getdarker wrote:chamack had a few easy chances to scored the easiest being the header from point blank range from the corner. my cat could score tht and i dont even have a cat!

hahahahahahaha :lol!:

Updated the first post. A bit of a lazy effort from me today.

Theo Walcott should be a 5 too he did nothing

Ramsey, Gervinho and RVP are amazing...

Arsenal have now 1-6 out of their last 7 games

Great win, so happy today

good result ! not satisfied with performances again !! excepting 4-5 of em..RVP no comment.

Had watched enough of Chamakh.. Too poor to be a starter.. Now chance for Park...
Gervinho and Ramsey were brilliant today and Song and Arteta held well.. Djurou did well.. Just stayed back and did his job without venturing much.. Kos following his mom performance..
Met descent.. but.. His passing is still pathetic.. Gives away the ball easily.. Clearances are very weak and cant keep the ball.. He tries to hide from the ball.. Or is he short of confidence ? Want more from a vastly experienced nt player...
And again RVP made the difference...

And great results too..
Just having a laugh.. Now how can the United fans boast about 8-2 playing our 2nd team and losing 1-6 with a full team at Old Traford...
liverpool drawing..
Chelsea dont seem to win today..
Only disappoint is Spuds winning again...
And good to see us back with the bigger names in the table...

RealGunner wrote:Arsenal have now 1-6 out of their last 7 games

pahahahahaha, YES

joy joy joy, joyous occasion for us all. i was working all day, i recorded our game , as allways and i just found out manure lost... it just gets better and better ( brick wall manu fans faces )

Anyways about the match

i thought we were in control nearly most of the match honestly. Stoke were crap going forward with crouch n walters. Their best chances came from set piece which we all knew anyways

Arteta is a really calm head in the middle of the park, exceptional passer. However Ramsey seems to be coming back to his old self. Was great overall.

Defence was kinda solid. Djourou is growing on me once again lol, although it must be said they didnt have any wingers to trouble him. Mertesacker is ever so solid and koscielny was a beast once again. Santos is fitting it well

up top? Chamakh was poor, theo was crap. Chamakh was really deep most of the time, i dont know why but he was rarely in the box. He should have scored 2 goals but is short on confidence. Worked hard as usual

Theo, i think he is suffering without fabregas. Thats the only reason i can think of. Dont know what happend to him. Not scoring, not assisting. But he is a big game player, might shine next week.

Gervinho was my MOTM. Showed his Lille form and i think he has finally settled in. Brilliant display.

Rvp? what can u say about the man? Captain vantastic

22 - Gervinho did not misplace a single pass against Stoke today, with all 22 finding a team-mate. Perfect

din't watch the game today but good win against a tough team....all that matters at the moment are the 3 points

Just get them 3 points

I can't remember who said it, but Chelsea DID drop points to QPR ...

yet to watch the match
happy for 3 pts
why chamakh average positioning is so deep?

lmao hilarious

sina90 wrote:yet to watch the match
happy for 3 pts
why chamakh average positioning is so deep?

Chamakh = CM