Potters smash Arsenal's slim title hopes – Stoke City 3-1 Arsenal
Arsenal’s slim chances of winning the Premier League were ended by a strong Stoke City side at the Britannia Stadium.
Kenwyne Jones opened the scoring for the Potters on 28 minutes before former Arsenal player Jermaine Pennant doubled the home side’s lead four minutes before half-time.
Dutch frontman Robin van Persie pulled one back for the Gunners on 81 minutes, only for Jon Walters to restore Stoke’s two-goal cushion just moments later.
Defeat for Arsene Wenger means that, whatever the result in the clash between Manchester United and Chelsea later on Sunday, they will be at least six points behind leaders United with two matches of the season remaining.
Arsenal’s Starting XI
Szczesny
Sagna – Djourou – Koscielny – Gibbs
Ramsey – Song – Wilshere
Walcott – van Persie – Arshavin
The performance showed exactly why Wenger has fallen short once again, with his defence looking flimsy under attack from set pieces and proving that he urgently needs to get the cheque book out this summer.
Stoke’s abrasive approach has infuriated Wenger in the past, culminating in the much-publicised challenge on Aaron Ramsey from Ryan Shawcross last February, and Arsenal’s Wales international started here.
It was a game Arsenal simply had to win but they fell behind just before the half hour, with Jones easily converted his fifth goal in six games from Pennant’s cross.
The hosts were further ahead five minutes after Pennant picked up a botched Ramsey pass 40 yards from goal and was allowed to run on unopposed before his shot took a substantial deflection off Johan Djourou to loop over Wojciech Szczesny.
The only headache Pulis will have picked up from the game was the loss of Robert Huth early in the second period with what appeared a shoulder injury, making him a doubt for Wembley.
Arsenal did battle valiantly to produce a snarl of defiance and van Persie beat Asmir Begovic with a low drive but Walters was given far too much room a minute later to clinch a sweet victory.
The players dont give toss why should we anymore
On and on the farcical defending goes. They just rotate the ludicrous errors between them. This time it was Djourou’s turn. The players amble about the pitch in silence, no one organising. How can this go on? But I bet it will.
inexcusable,spineless,gutless,pathetic etc.Wenger out !!!!!!
Where do you start? I see Rice is wearing shades so that he can blend even further into the background. The sooner we get in some decent coaching staff who know how to meld this team into a cohesive defensive unit the better. Some pretty naff game mentality needs to change at Arsenal.
Pathetic #Arsenal. Utterly, gutlessly, spinelessly, embarrassingly pathetic. I’ve had enough of losing like this. Time for big decisions.
I see man u are winning this day couldnt get any worse. Commentator just said man u would have had in the bag a lot earlier if valencia hadnt been injured. I tend to think if wenger had signed a strong cb in the window they wouldnt have seen us for dust
There is an attitude problem at Arsenal and the players and the manager have to take responsibility for it. Arsene has played a key part in setting the wages of these players and he has given many of them too much too soon. They dont seem to care and worse of all they dont seem to play for him anymore. Something is massively wrong, Wenger needs to put the blame on the players and stop spinning bollocks after every game. It’s been an embarrassing season.
It just never changes does it!Thought we were world beaters last week and then produce that dross today, it really can only be down to the Manager as surely he is the one who is unable to motivate the team against a supposed inferior side. AW can mock Stoke City every day of the week but if we had their desire to win instead of ambling around the pitch like we couldn’t care less the title would have been won months ago!
Nick ..you only give a toss when you’re winning
Up the Potters!
Clueless, it is not only the defense that is comedic. Why can’t they play with two strikers. It seemed that one striker against big CF’s is a mismatch Van Persie and Chamakh should play more together. Congratualtion to SAF. This is a manger who does not present the same lineup/formation every match, who seems to know who and whom to rotate. That said we did ok if we make it into the CL again, becaue that is what they play for. More depth is needed next year. Kroenke needs to bring Dein back
Wenger needs to wake up and realise that his way isn’t working anymore. When everyone is saying buy a defender or two, that there is no bite in the middle of the park, that we need someone up front to partner van persie, why does he think that our opinion is wrong? Like the comment from gooner, I thought today showed a lack of bottle and worryingly a lack of team spirit.
Kroenke need to sack that french twat.
IF we could defend set pieces even half decently, we’d have won the league. Good to see TV5 back on the bench, how we’ve missed him!
We all know what’s wrong people! Defensive relapses and our bad mentality. Still demanding for a result after this though. Come on Arsenal! Cheers
Defensive errors yes.. but did we ever look like scoring.. we knew they’d play an 8-1-1, so why not start with a guy up top who can head the ball. Walcott is pointless in these games. We don’t seem to have players who can dribble in tight spaces other than Nasri.
Elsewhere, Gibbs continues to make mistakes at the back and be uneventful going forward. Song is still the defensive midfielder that doesn’t defend. And Arshavin I just can’t comprehend anymore. People give Bendtner stick, but he put in more effort and looked more composed on the wing than the lazy Russian.
A centre back who organises, a defensive midfielder who tackles and a winger who works hard as well as dribbles please Arsene!!!
Potterpower no need to gloat. Well done today and good luck for the final.
it is not just an issue of signing players. the first two goals we conceded were a tactical matter. no organisation in defence. no set pieces training i’m sure. shocking. simply shocking.
yes djourou was to blame. but what about gibbs? he claims he wants more playing time and better wages. not with a performance like that you ain’t. i hope we don’t give it to him. rewarding failure gets you nothing. and as for wojciech, he was just as bad. under NO circumstances should a team score from set pieces from within the six-yard area. NEVER. the six yard area is the goalkeeper’s zone. he should not only be claiming EVERYTHING in there, but taking EVERYONE with him too!
Arsene’s tactics were off too. This is not the LaLiga. in the prem you sometimes need to change your tactics because you are going to find a team of massive ugly oafs in front of you. they will kick you to the ground and you need to have the guts on the pitch to stand up to them. How is it that Jack Wilshere is the only one in this team with any balls? Oh and that guy you call ‘the glass man’, well he showed more balls than all of the rest too. 8 consecutive goals AWAY from home FFS! what the hell are the rest of them doing? what is alex song doing? djourou? kos? where is the bloody fire?
we are in a sad state of affairs gentlemen. things are more serious than we thought…
I don’t agree with this assumption that our defence has been our demise this season, I’d put more blame on our attacking play, formation and selection. We should be scoring more than 1 goal against these sh!t teams
Arsenal 0-0 Sunderland
Arsenal 0-0 Blackburn
Bolton 2-1 Arsenal
Arsenal 0-1 Newcastle
During the first half of the season we were scoring goals for fun. Chamakh and Vela were in the team then, so ultimatley I blame Wenger for changing it! The guys a fuck!ng idiot when it comes to team selection and the players know it too!
I personally think everyoen at Arsenal football club has lost their marbles. Either wenger buys, good experinced players to help the younger players, or he can fuck of as well. hell whats the point even calling them young now, the squad has been together for 6, coming upto 7 years, and wtf have the learnt? Absoultley nothing. Its basiclly pass sideways, sidways,sideways,backwards,sideways, no shot, sideways,backwards,lose the ball. Wenger has trained shooting out of every single player. Wenger has basiicly become a joke.
@E10:
vela cant even get into a shitty west brom side, he has always been crap, he has neevr been a prolific goalscorer,and he wastes alot of chances. More overhyped young players, that wenger tryed to foool the world into thinking were world beaters. Every year wenger keeps saying give us another year. Hey wenger this is 7 years now coming, so maybe you should teach them how to shoot. because its obviuos in 6-7 years you havnt taught anyone how to shoot.
it was a complete disaster.
I think Arshavin basically trashed the first half. Both Gibbs and Arshavin on the left side was a complete mistake.
Also, Arshavin’s clumsy move gave them a free kick which became the first goal for Stoke.
It seems Arshavin and Walcott swapped after first 20 minutes but still Walcott could not change the pace
It was not his day either.
Again, We need a REAL CENTRE BACK. I mean REAL LEGIT DEFENDER.
I think Koscielny did good job today and he is getting better.
Lastly, Bendtner is a MUST GO! NO DOUBT!
I really don’t understand why Wenger said he will talk to Bendtner about his future
There is NO FUTURE for him here. MUST GO FOR SURE
You have to say fair play to Stoke, they played more effectively than us and deserved to win. Our team lacks bottle that Vermaelen will bring us when he comes back. Kos had a great game today, but is inconsistent, a top quality centre back would sort us. Disappointed with Chamakh but he did have a great start to the season. All this Wenger out stuff is nonsense, the man is untouchable for what he has done for this club. If we keep our strongest XI, add a centre back and maybe more experience on the bench, we will do alright.
Think that just sums up the season really. Lack of fight, Passion, tactical awareness, a true leader and players that will sweat blood for the club. As long as the money is rolling in though the shareholders are happy and wenger will carry on as before. Don’t know why we build up the summer as we all know we will have the same lackluster players next year minus probably fabregas with the kid from charlton and some somalian 14 year old!
What an embarrassment to be a gooner at the moment. No winners, no drive, no passion. AW has got real problems.
stantheman
Congratulations to United from a Chelsea fan. You deserved to win and were the better team over the course of the season. There’s always next time, hopefully Carlo stays as it does no good to keep changing the manager whenever things dont quite go to plan.
Just move the club to Spain, the stadium, the lot.
No matter who is brought in during the Summer Window, there will be no improvement until the coaching people sort out our total inability to defend setpieces.
Clive Owen I think you`re lost this is a gooner blog.
Almumia clichy squallici denilson rosicky bendtner eboue diaby chamakh all out. Clear the whole lot Wenger and bring in some talented players who has are proven. Time to splash the cash otherwise we won’t even finish in the champ league nxt yr
we need english defenders and midfielders. arsenal is an english legend team, we need english heads and heart.
i’d say that we need that young cb Sakho
With the execption of vermealen, wilshire, ramsey n rvp i dont really care 4 any of these players there hopeless and in my opinion so 2 is wenger! I’ll always be grateful for what he did in his 1st 7 years so pls go now b4 ur reputation is completely tarnished!
lol gotto say Djourou has performed an outstanding optical illusion which has duped 90% of Arsenal fans.
Before he came back we were still shipping goals and as soon as he comes back and has like one or two decent games largely because the defence was untroubled – he’s suddenly our saviour and hero.
He is a truly awful defender and will always be exposed. Always lets his man run across him, Jones yesterday. Comical for the 3rd, and against bolton he was at it too.
I always knew how bad he was since he was on loan at birmingham.
Arsenal need to shoot from outside the box!
They need to be ruthless!
Sagna needs to practice his crossings for 100times every training
Clichy needs to learn how not to play opponents onside
@Rocky: how can you say something like that? he`s been playing outstanding the whole season, played great games against the big opponents, came in for vermaelen after being out whole last season, and you say he is awful defender? you`re crazy!
in him, vermaelen and kos we have great defenders, now we need another one or two just to make the competition bigger. yes, i agree, the games against stoke and bolton were pretty bad for him, but he is not a robot, he has a right to make mistakes, he is only human.
hope that this summer will bring a lot of drastic changes in our team. and by that i mean 5-6 players out and experienced players in thair place. yes, i do believe wenger can do it, he is not blind ffs!
@@gfsdgfsd: Clichy didnt even play in this game mate.. :/