Arsene Wenger had warned the Arsenal players about complacency in the build up to this game and I think the message had got through as we were focused from the first whistle. Stoke, however, came to the Emirates in good frm so it was just as well as they started well and created a few decent chances early on.
It looked like the Gunners had weathered the storm and were dominating the ball and creating chances ourselves, and our attack looked better once Bellerin came on as Gabriel had to move inside to replace the injury hit Mustafi, when we had the setback of a contentious penalty awarded for a foul on Joe Allen by Granit Xhaka. The Stoke player seemed to have l;ost the ball and the collision looked accidental but Xhaka’s elbow was high and Charlie Adam put the Potters ahead from the spot.
They were not ahead at the break though, even though they did have another good chance just before we equalised through Theo Walcott who finished well at the near post a Bellerin cross set up by a fantastic Aelxis through ball. That would have made Wenger’s team talk a lot easier and five minutes after the restart the turnaround was complete.
Ozil scored with a deftly dinked header over the Stoke keeper after he was found unmarked by a lofted pass by the Ox. THat knocked a lot of the stuffing out of the visitors and the rest was gone when Alex Iwobi scored just a few minutes after replacing Chamberlain, latching on to a loose ball after more great work from Sanchez.
Bob.