Arsenal absolutely dominated our arch enemies Stoke today and, despite the heroics of Jack Butland in goal, we still managed to get two goals. As is obvious from our first few games, we created hundreds of chances that were not converted – so to see the Gunners get two past a very good goalkeeper was quite satisfying, especially as I guaranteed Arsenal would win by two goals, and even better for Jonn Hirons who predicted the 2-0 scoreline. So we should all be very happy today as well as a little bit richer…
So, everyone has been criticizing Wenger for not buying a striker in the summer, but the two centre-forwards that he kept the faith with, Giroud and Walcott, scored the goals that moved us into joint second in the League. Perhaps we could now stop criticizing our players and manager? Yeah Right!
Of course Le Prof was happy with the win, but he did point out that we really could have scored a lot more….Wenger said after the game: “They (the strikers) scored so it is good for them, but I believe we put in a very strong performance. Technically we had our moments in the first half and we played the football we wanted to play and created several chances. Maybe if I wanted to be critical I could say that that there is too big a difference between the number of chances we created and the number of goals we scored but that will come quickly once you win your games at home.”
There was a lot of talk about the lack of goals before today, But Wenger always believed that his team would come up with the goals. “I was not worried about that as I knew that would not last forever with the number of chances we create.” Wenger related. “We are the team who has created the most chances since the start of the season and we had 30 shots on goal today and continuously we created chances today from the first to the last minute and the players had the quality to score so at some stage that would have come. I also believe we have stabilised our defensive record, we have not conceded after a difficult start. We did not concede against Liverpool and at Newcastle and today so that is good for our future.”
Well we should all be encouraged by today’s game. The defence was great, and the strikers will get more accurate as they get match-sharp.
Onwards and Upwards!