Stoke City 1 - 0 Arsenal: Bottled It

A shit game of football to which Arsenal contributed as much shittiness as Stoke did, and ended up losing in a shit way. I'm usually optimistic and like to see the positives in things, but today I just can't, because we've quite possibly just seen our title chances go soaring over the crossbar.

One of our strengths this season has been our consistency against the lower clubs in the league. Although we've been poor against the top sides, we were still competing because we kept winning these sorts of games. But with the way the schedule works out, Arsenal now have to win those big games to get themselves back into the title race, and can anyone really see that happening? Does anyone see us picking up nine points from Spurs, Chelsea and City? Have our performances in those sorts of games even suggest we're capable of doing so? The answer has to be no.

I'll be severely disappointed if Wenger ends up blaming the ref or Stoke's approach for this result. Yeah, Stoke were physical as always, Whelan and Adam got away with stamping on Giroud without even a warning, let alone the red cards those challenges warranted, but what did we do? We let Stoke have more of the ball than us. Let me repeat that: we let Stoke *bleep* City have more of the ball than us. We had ZERO shots on target in the second half. Our one good chance fell to a raw 21 year old making only his third appearance for us, and he blazed it over the bar. Giroud spent more time on the ground than doing anything good. Wilshere, Cazorla, Rosicky, what did they do? Nothing. Poor passing, no tempo, sloppy touches, absolutely zero cutting edge.

Our cautiousness backfired today. Wenger chose to leave his two most potent attacking outlets available to him on the bench, and the team played with the proverbial hand-break on. They never got going. When we needed a change, Wenger, of course, leaves it late; Chamberlain got 15 minutes when he should have come on much, much earlier, possibly even at half-time.

Dare I say it, these are the games that title winners win. When you're not playing well, when the opposition are making it difficult, when things aren't quite going in your favour, title winners will find a way to win. Now we've dug ourselves into a hole that's going to take a monumental effort to climb out of and with Chelsea winning consistently, Liverpool coming into good form and City in good form I'm beginning to worry.

We can still turn things around, but right now I just don't see how. Whereas before we were working out whether we can draw against Chelsea or City or even afford to lose one of them, we now have to win all three of those games in that run to turn it around. It's a simple yet daunting scenario. From somewhere, Arsenal need to find the ability to win big matches.

It's over

chance creation is the biggest issue... and that's a combo midfield + fullback overlap problem.

There is no point in ranting. We all know the flaws. There was nothing new which needs to be talked about.

I refuse to believe Arsene looks at Giroud and thinks that he is the guy who will help us win the title upfront.

We lost the title the day Ramsey and Walcott got injured. What do they both have in common? Both runs off the ball and both are goal scorers.

For all of you who complains about Podolski not starting. I think you should now know why.

I hope we can give our everything in the FA Cup. Only salvation after the 4th spot.

Jay spot on.

Fighting for 4th place starts now. I am wondering if we would win anything under Wenger again?

Gambled our season away.  

Giroud time at Arsenal is up, only bench from now on.

We have had many shit games this season, we just not good enough.

I wouldn't be that harsh, losing Theo and Ramsey and not replacing them was probably the biggest killer.

Also the other factor that Giroud isn't as good as Lex tries to tell everyone.

i will panic if we lose to spuds and they get close to us

for now there is no positive from this

lets move on and beat Everton in the cup

mind you still dont fancy us for cup success

dont care if ppl call it losing mentality or what
but our target wasnt winning the double but just closing the gap

you dont go from 4th place dogfight to title winning overnight
not when the team is still work in progress and still left with few glaring spots to be fixed

disappointing but not end of the world

I don't think we were that bad, Stoke was always going to be a difficult game which ever way you look at it .They have beaten Chelsea , CIty and Yanited at home this season. They have only lost twice at home all season, They were always going to make the game scrappy, physical and dirty which suits them more so it was always going to be a dirty game.

The problem today was that we din't create anything and hardly looked threating,  Begovic was hardly tested. We were very predictable when going forward, missed someone who could do something different in the final third rather than the usual pass and move around the box. We already have two tap in merchants with Rosicky, Jack and Santi in midfield.

We needed someone who can take the risk in the final third with a shot or take a defender on. I understand Wenger leaving Ozil on the bench as he is not used to playing against Stoke physical approach.

You need fighters if you are going to play there but Why leave out Ox, when the guy has been playing well and was rested last week. He would have been up for it today, when he got on the pitch we looked more threatening and created at least some chances.

You can't really blame Giroud today, he was left isolated up front alone and he was fighting two centre half on his own plus Stoke players took turns in knocking the shit out of him. He was dying for a bit of support and decent service which he hardly received. I can only remember one instance during the game when Jack made a run from midfield to beyond him. That was the only during the game when someone attempted to make any sort of runs to support him.

The blame lies more with the midfield today, they hardly created anything in the final third and were ineffective. Poldi and Cazorla for example, sometime it felt like only Rosicky and Giroud were the only ones trying to create anything.

wenger flopped today, poor team selection. not starting oxlade and ozil was ridiculous. i can forgive him for starting that pile of crap giroud because of last game, (where he wasnt even that good, sunderland just sucked hard) but we should have took him off in 60mins, for sanogo.

sportsczy wrote:chance creation is the biggest issue...  and that's a combo midfield + fullback overlap problem.

Agreed,

Our Fullbacks are very poor when it comes to crossing the ball its a known fact, the other problem is there is only Giroud to aim in the box so its not always easy to pick him out when he is surrounded by X amount of defenders

Season over. Rinse repeat. How can you now defend the moron in charge of us? Enjoy your 4th place trophy, you earned it.

Four points off the top with ten matches to go.

"Season over." Well, maybe. We'll have to see. "We have to play Chelsea and Man City and ... there's no way we can rely on getting those points!" As if being champions somehow wouldn't entail beating big teams.

Today's match sucked a lot and nobody has cause to be happy. But damn some of you all give up easy as shit. Why do you even watch sports?   

In all honesty I am surprised we got this far 4 points off top in March.

No blame at all for AW today, simply because that team was more than good enough to win that game. It's Stoke, not Barcelona none of those Stoke players would get in anyone reserve team squad. If it were a big game then tactics are just as important as personnel, but these games you can get away with having better players to win the game, classic example Wigan away last year we won 1-0 but we were utter garbage.

For me, we always seem to be missing out on one player in one position, we have not been a complete squad since 05/06 really. 07/08 lack of one extra experienced head, i.e. an Henry or a Keown esque figure against Birmingham away. 08/09 & 09/10 a lack of a real goalkeeper. 10/11 a competent CB to replace Vermaelen. 11/12 12/13 sale of best player and one of the best in the world in their position. 12/13 13/14 a quality striker.

There's no need for me to go into semantics about which players aren't good enough for a title winning campaign. What I will say is that the team should at the very least and I hate saying this but secure 3rd and give everything to win the FA Cup. If come May 14th, the aforementioned happens this would be a watershed moment for the club.

Club and the fans of Arsenal need to move onto the next one, it's no coincidence that the only top 7 team in the country Liverpool won there because they have the best strikers in the country and the best striker partnership in Europe Arsenal do not have that, so for next season I'd look at recruiting a player with guile and pace to at least attempt make the most of Giroud's "link up" play.

Chumlum wrote:Four points off the top with ten matches to go.

"Season over." Well, maybe. We'll have to see. "We have to play Chelsea and Man City and ... there's no way we can rely on getting those points!" As if being champions somehow wouldn't entail beating big teams.

Today's match sucked a lot and nobody has cause to be happy. But damn some of you all give up easy as shit. Why do you even watch sports?   

I am not upset about a title. I am furious about this embarrassing performance. Shit players leading the line, Giroud is embarrassing Arsenal football club. Wenger is so stubborn. Stop playing this useless player.

I watch to enjoy football, but what I have seen from us lately has been embarrassing, at the end of the day there is one winner and trophies for me are bonus if it can happen.

City and Chelsea still have to come to Anfield, The top 7 play each other every week from now. It's as open as porn on the internet.

Nishank wrote:City and Chelsea still have to come to Anfield, The top 7 play each other every week from now. It's as open as porn on the internet.

Not for us, Chelsea, City and Liverpool are Superior to us. Our season was over when we lost Theo. Wenger too stubborn to buy a striker, No striker no title
Wenger failed to address this in January.

Mourinho complains about the lack of strikers they have at Chelsea (Ba, Torres, Eto’o,) Wenger keeps his mouth shut and keeps sending A donkey to lead the line.

Wenger is a 4th place manager, his past is legendary but I feel he needs to take a look at himself and starts making changes.

There's no need for me to go into semantics about which players aren't good enough for a title winning campaign. What I will say is that the team should at the very least and I hate saying this but secure 3rd and give everything to win the FA Cup. If come May 14th, the aforementioned happens this would be a watershed moment for the club.

100% agree. Coming this far and not winning the title would be disappointing but since not many fans expected it to happen it wouldn't be a disaster. I think what most fans wanted to see this season was progress being made and a 2nd or 3rd placed finish within at least 5 points of the eventual champions plus an FA Cup would be a successful season.

1991 wrote:Season over. Rinse repeat. How can you now defend the moron in charge of us? Enjoy your 4th place trophy, you earned it.

Funny how this hasn't been mentioned until now. Fickle, fickle.


Absolutely terrible. Refereeing was also a disgrace. How many studs-on stamps did we have to endure? Also, that penalty was ridiculous, ball to hand rather than hand to ball and how quickly did he award it?

Most disappointing 90 minutes of the season.

But those who think the season is scrapped are losing it. Have some faith ffs. Anything can happen in 10 games. This just makes me that much more excited for the FA Cup.

GoonerJay29 wrote:
Dare I say it, these are the games that title winners win.  

Neither of Man City or Chelsea won there, stop being so melodramatic

Art Morte wrote:

GoonerJay29 wrote:
Dare I say it, these are the games that title winners win.  

Neither of Man City or Chelsea won there, stop being so melodramatic

Thank you. We like to sensationalize everything. I swear to you, our season was most certainly over after drawing 2-2 at Soton. How could it have ended then and today?

Not melodramatic, just being realistic when we're about to head to *bleep* that's is March Madness. Care to look at head to head record againt City & Chelsea as well as goal difference Art, we stayed top cause we max out against the weak.

All depends on Wenger strategy & pride, if he decides to go all out in Munich, we might be done in March.

Our record against the bigger sides this season and the way we're playing right now gives me little confidence about us making up the points against Spurs, Chelsea and City. Yes, it's football and anything can happen, and yes, Arsenal have responded well to set-backs this season, but it's just my feeling that this result is a precursor towards a poor March. The margin or error was small enough as it was, but now it's non-existent.

Naturally, I want them to prove me wrong, and I'm not completely without hope, but I'm not too positive about things right now.

I hope that we bounce back stronger. Thats what we've done this season or most of the season. Everytime we have had a setback we bounced back.