A Valuable Point Gained

STOKE CITY 1 – ARSENAL 1

I’m always very apprehensive ahead of our annual league game at the Britannia Stadium. There are teams I despise more than Stoke City, but all with genuine reason, be it because they are local rivals, or old title chasing rivals etc.

With Stoke, it’s different. My hate for them is purely a result of their own cuntishness. A horrible word that I don’t use lightly, but in this circumstance it’s perfectly applicable.

No other side have as genuine tactics of negative football and injuring opposition players, nor do they have a baseball cap wearing bellend of a manager either. Then there’s the fans, who openly wish leg breaks on opposition players, cheer every goal kick or throw in they win, and even celebrate offside decisions like they’ve scored themselves. A hopelessly miserable set of supporters, and a shocker of a club, where we have often struggled in years gone by. They again booed Aaron Ramsey today, which showed once and for all what a classless set of scumbags they truly are.

Excuse me for that, just needed to get it off my chest…

But today we come away from that caveman infested shithole of a town with what should be acknowledged as a valuable point, that further improves our chances of finishing 3^rd due to other results going our way too.

Especially after we were behind inside 10 minutes, with the human lamp post that is Peter Crouch getting on the end of Matthew Etherington cross, that in all honesty we should have done better at handling. Bacary Sagna allowed Etherington too much time and space on the left, and Crouch got the end of the cross way too easily. I know he’s 8ft tall and all, but it was all too simple for that long stick insect, and we were 1-0 down.

Slightly against the run of play, because we started brightly which included a Yossi Benayoun attempt that he perhaps should have done better with. But despite going a goal down we responded emphatically and were level five minutes later. Tomas Rosicky swayed down the left hand side and delivered a perfect cross for Robin van Persie to tap home at the far post.

RVP and Yossi celebrate the Arsenal equaliser.

‘He scores when he wants’ echoed around the Britannia, and it almost seemed inevitable that RVP would end his ‘mini-drought’ to cap off the week in which he was named PFA and Football Writer’s Player Of The Year. Richly deserved, and great to see him back on the score sheet.

From there we had plenty more chances in which to score a second, but failed to make any of them count. Gervinho couldn't get on the end of an inviting Sagna cross from the right, and Ramsey dragged a shot wide in the only other genuine chances in the first half. In the second, both RVP and Thomas Vermaelen had free kicks from good positions blocked, Gervinho blazed over the bar, and RVP again had a chance from the back post with a header which was saved comfortably by Asmir Begovic.

There was controversy around the 75^th minute, when Benayoun was bundled over in the penalty area, but referee Chris Foy (not Hoy) deemed it legal and with the gift of television replays it would be hard to argue against that verdict.

The game played out with subs thrown on, including a surprise appearance for Marouane Chamakh, who acted as a decent hold up player but failed to add any real venom to our attacking play. Andre Santos and Abou Diaby also came on late, but the game played out without any more real chances for Arsenal to win it. And we had to endure a nervy few moments at the end as we survived a Rory Delap special in stoppage time that was just about dealt with by Wojciech Szczesny.

Alex Song tracks the human lamp post.

All in all, a decent point seeing as we’ve often come up stuck against Stoke in recent visits, and they have a good record against the big clubs at home. However you’d be forgiven for feeling slightly disappointed as we definitely had chances to win it. But, Newcastle’s battering at Wigan means we extend the gap we have over them, yet we allow both Chelsea and Sp*rs the chance to close the gap on us when they play their games tomorrow.

It’s still in our hands, and victory against both Norwich and West Brom in our final two games will ensure we finish 3^rd, no question.

People will again point out that it’s another game we’ve failed to win due to the absence of Mikel Arteta, but I don’t think we totally missed him in the first half. Rosicky was excellent as ever, Alex Song was more reliable than he has been of late, and Ramsey coped admirably for a bloke who’s come under serious pressure from some areas of the home support in recent weeks, and was getting ridiculously booed by those 6-fingered home fans at every opportunity. He got stuck in, and as always he never hid from anything.

Tomas Rosicky was again on form.

Arteta’s absence was more noticeable in the second half, when legs began to get tired and no one totally grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck. We fell a bit flat towards the end of the game, as chances were few and far between with our best opportunities coming from set pieces. Diaby hobbled off at full time (unsurprisingly), and despite his obvious raw talent (that has led to comparisons to Vieira), I can’t help but wonder if he’s just worth leaving out for the rest of the season, and ensure he’s 100% ready for the next campaign.

Attacking wise Benayoun was again a shining example playing with heart and desire. I’m really starting to think he’ll be worth signing (if we can) on a yearlong contract. He wants to play regularly, and I have no doubt he would get plenty of game time if he gave us another year, and his work rate and ethics are valuable for both match days and also on the training ground as well.

Gervinho had a mixed game today. He made some brilliant runs, both on and off the ball, but was again let down by his poor finishing and composure.  That’s a confidence thing, and he’s clearly still struggling as he has been since the African Nations Cup. He’s worthy of patience, as the talent is there, and don’t forget he’s not the first to come to Arsenal and struggle in year one. If we stick with him, I’m sure he’ll become good.

Defensively, despite the early goal, we were for the most part comfortable with what Stoke had to throw (or rugby pass) at us. In the second half Vermaelen seemed to spend most his time in the opposition half, which kind of sets the scene for how dominant we were. It’s great to see our strongest possible back four getting this much game time, and if we can keep them fit and together then it’ll only be a good thing in the longer run.

It would be very easy to say that today was two points lost, but as a positive Gooner I’m going instead with a pretty good point gained. Stoke were never going to make it easy for us, yet we escape unhurt and unbeaten. Their tactics were obvious from the start. The narrowed pitch disrupted our ability to exploit the flanks, and the thug like strategy they always use was applied as early as the second minute, where Ramsey took an elbow to the throat, and Song was hacked down by someone who can only be described as an escaped convict. From there, we battled and probably outplayed Stoke. A point might not sound like a great reward, but it could certainly be viewed as a valuable one come the end of the season.


Let’s hope for a slip up from the other two teams chasing us tomorrow, and then divert our attention to our final home game against Norwich next weekend.

We’re on the final straight. Let’s see it across the line.