If Arsenal travel north to Anfield next weekend to play Liverpool and come away with nothing then I think we will all have good reason to feel pessimistic about the Premier League season ahead, but I also think that the defeat away to Stoke City today should not cause us to worry too much, for a few reasons.
One is that we were a bit unlucky. The Gunners scored a perfectly good goal through Lacazette and should have had at least one penalty, while on another day all those chances would have ended up with some goals. Having said that we did lack a bit of cutting edge and, more importantly, the defensive side of things was not great.
But that is another reason not to panic, strangely enough, because from next week we should be stronger back there with Koscielny’s three game ban now served. Monreal on the left is good and we have the option of Kolasinac as well, or even Mertesacker bringing his experience and presence.
We should also remember that Stoke has always been a tough trip for Arsenal and they were right at it today after losing their opening game. They are always up for a scrap with us to be fair and today was no different. We did end up matching that and dominating the game and but for a moment of switching off after the break they did not look like scoring.
Finally, on the positive side of things, Alexis Sanchez will hopefully be back to face the scousers, so do not get too down about this defeat guys. Arsenal WILL get better.
Sam P.