Arsenal won their fourth game in a row against Stoke yesterday, and to be honest with the amount of chances the Gunners created it could just as easily have been 6-0 instead of 3-0. Many pundits said that Arsenal were ‘flattered’ by the scoreline, considering it was still 0-0 with 15 minutes to go, but the fact is that we always had the upper hand, and if i hadn’t been for Jack Butland and a few lucky blocks we could easily have won by a cricket score.
Okay Stoke had a few chances in the first half but they were few and far between. Even Arsene Wenger felt that we had a bad first half. “First of all, Stoke played well.” the Boss said. “Secondly, we didn’t play well in the first half at all. We lacked urgency, pace, drive. In the second half, we rectified that. As much as I felt that in the first half we could lose this game, in the second half I always felt we would win this game. That’s the difference in attitude of the team. Overall that explains why it was 0-0 at half-time and 3-0 after the game.”
I personally never felt that Arsenal were in danger and were always going to win the game comfortably, and the stats also bear that out. We had a massive 70% possession and had 24 shots on the Stoke goal, with 11 of them on target, whereas Stoke had only 2 on target out of their 8 attempts. Those figures don’t make it look like Arsenal were flattered at all!
I really don’t understand why so many Arsenal fans always try to look at things negatively. We won 3-0 against one of our most hated enemies with complete dominance, and our confidence is growing with 4 wins in a row, and a 5th to come on Thursday against CSKA Moscow.
Let’s be happy with a good win for a change!
Sam P
So the article writer thinks that we destroyed Stoke! I totally disgree and were ourselves rubbish for all but the last quarter of game(approx) What changed it was finally binning the dreadfully inept Welbeck, the appallingly dreadful and limited Elneny( ludicrously overrated by SOME myopic Gooners) and Wilshere who had a rank poor game and will anyway soon be off , it appears. Three far better replacements changed the game in our favour as we all saw. But overall we were rubbish and no wonder the forest of empty seats is now a commonplace sight. This will remain the case until the club do what they SHOULD have done years ago and announce Wenger’s sacking. Good riddence to him too!
I think everyone agrees that we were rubbish for most of the game, especially with our passing and that surprises me for a team that likes possession football at least there should be mastery of ball retention and passing out of tight spaces especially as we obviously dont do defending.
But i think,if we are still in contention for top4, many fans wont abandon the stadium even amid all that has been happening.
Right now, you dont feel the need to see the EPL games unless of course to watch PEA…
Seriously fam? We were awful
But we won. Many times we hope we could win ugly rather than lose pretty. But when we do win ugly, the whinnying won’t stop!
I read a brilliant article on Ray Parlour, it was on Gunners town and reminded me of why we loved Ray and the other guys so much back then. It’s a great article to read esp if you started supporting Arsenal after his era. We had people working hard on principles and extra training but most of all they loved competing.
Why were Arsenal booed off at half time. Is that the new form of applause?
It’s Sam P, bank holiday school closed
Sam very often writes articles when we’ve lost and Can we not see positivity so as we won it’s an easy morning
We were/ are awful
Someone should take the blame
Half empty ground shows what the fans think
Sam like you said its all about confidence for the players and also for the supporters as well lack confidence, when i look at our team i think YEA some good players we should make teams like Stoke look Minos but instead we made them look good, i too believed we would win but to who? Stoke who most probably be relegated and had the better start for a long period and we had no answers apart from constantly passing the ball backwards to make our ” Possession” look good
This should just be business as usual for a big club. At home against Stoke? I’ll be happy if we win Europa League I want UCL.
You want UCL with this team and that manager??
All true fans want champions league.
The game had no value other than a confidence booster for Thursday.
I think people are just extremely disappointed that another season has been wasted through the lack of management and insight displayed by someone who gets paid an absolute fortune to improve the clubs fortunes.
The only way the cloud of depression and lack of interest is go to leave the club is when the manager leaves the club.
It is the manager who is the cause of this…
The worrying thing about yesterday’s game was, in the first half, we were out thought tactically by Stoke and this comes back to Wenger. He’d never admit this, as we all know it’s never his fault, he just does what he does every week and blames the players. He continues to play Welbeck when we have a young, possibly future star in Eddie to unleash. For most of the first half he had Ozil playing on the right wing with the job of having to chase the Stoke left back every time he got forward, all this so he could accommodate his beloved Ramsey in the 10 role. Even though I was screaming at him every 5 minutes to change the formation we all knew that nothing was going to be done until the 70th minute. When he did finally make the changes we romped home comfortably. So frustrating.
Apparently, according to the manager the cause of the thousands of empty seats at the Emirates Stadium was in fact the Easter Bunny.
Even chocolate egg bearing rabbits are not free from blame.
Got nothing to do with the fact that no one can be arsed with Arsenal anymore – at least whilst he is still there…
so AW’s voice missing and half the supporters missing is due to Easter Bunny? Phew i thought it was ET
I think we have massive quality in this team.As Gattuso said”Arsenal has ENOURMOUS qaulity at their disposal”.Rightly so. We beat AC Milan,the un form team un Italy, in the SAN SIRO,without bellirin (who is wanted by Barca),Monreal who is the best left back in the premier league,Cech,a world class goalie bar his bad form of late.AND without Auba and Lacazette.We have may be a psychlogical problem in the premier league, because of the manager and the negativity surrounding him?is a managerial change required? May be……
The in form team in Italy,sorry
The fact we beat Milan means nothing! They were awful, especially in the first leg. It’s interesting about our players though. We know our manager is terrible at his job, and needs replacing asap, it’s beyond doubt now, but do we have rubbish players as well (also Wenger’s fault), or do we have quality players that just look bad under Wenger, because he’s not managing them correctly?
Its going to be interesting to see what our next manager can do with our squad. A lot better than 6th I imagine!
wenger is so deluded, he keeps giving excuses for the half empty stadium, does 9th place everyone have anything to play for? why is there stadium not half empty
many arsenal fans are tired of wenger and want him out but he is delusional to acknowledge the fact that he is no longer wanted by the fans
I mean everyone have nothing to play for
I think he truly gets it now. The mystique is gone, fan apathy has set in, and his sons are being sold off one by one.
Question is do the board and owner finally get it now?
Josh Kronke, you continue to see empty seats? Remind you of the shitty clubs your dad owns in the States?
Majority of fans behind you to hire new manager, now is the time.
No worries, people waited well over 10 years for Wenger to deliver a title. I’m pretty sure fans will be patient with new top manager.
gosh Everton auto correct is killing me
The misery my friend is that we are a massive 33 points behind man city.
and number 6 on the table.
no real arsenal fan is happy.
half empty stadium should tell you fans arent happy.
Aubameyang was a gracious sportsman to give up the possible hattrick penalty to Lacazette but would have been nice to see him score one.
I reckon they will both score a hat trick next season
We have top quality up front with Aubameyang, Lacazette, Mkhitaryan and Ozil (id like to see one more winger/attacker)
Now we need more more Top quality in
1. Manager and coaches
2. Defense
3. Back of central midfield
Then we have a team that can compete with the top 5.
The Stoke match was a good result but NOT a good performance from us. A win is a win BUT if we want to succeed in Europa League, Wenger needs to not make the same mistakes in Starting lineup. He has to get the Starting lineup spot on (no Welbeck or Iwobi please) and our players need to play their buts off.
A nothing game. If this was meant to give us a psychological boost for Thursday it utterly failed. One consolation though, Lacazette looked sharp but it’s doubtful he’ll last the full 90+ minutes which probably means Welbeck will start. We will need to take a healthy lead to Moscow where the atmosphere is going to be horrendous.
It seems all doom and gloom at the moment but I do believe that Arsene Wenger will leave in the summer. There will have to be major changes made in our defence and midfield but for the first time in many years the combination of Ozil, Mhkitarayan, Aubameyang and Lacazette is as good as anyone in the EPL. And there appears to be a good structure at the club at long last.
Greetings to San P from the parallel universe. In our universe Arsenal we’re wack yesterday but glad it was a good game on your side
most fans think a new manager comes in…there will be big signings and many world class signings…..which is unlikely….
the new manager still has to work on a budget…promote academy players if possible and etc…
Arsenal double standards:
When Arsenal lose but play very well: WENGER OUT
When Arsenal win 3-0 but play badly : WENGER OUT
How is hat double standard u genius it’s the same opinion ?
when wenger goes almost 15 years with no EPL title and Arsenal get worse and worse: WENGER OUT
The writer obviously is unaware of what the word “destroyed” means.
It beats me how and why people say Elneny didn’t play well yesterday.
the whole team was shit in the first half, but Elneny was a rare bright spot with the way he shielded the defense and helped keep and recycle possession in the second half
theres nothing to play for now besides pride. And it’s not like we’ve been entertaining either. Outside of Europa we’re all just waiting for next season and hopefully new manager.
Arsenal destroyed Stoke City!!! Are you having a laugh?
We won due to an iffy penalty, our perhaps superior stamina after Stoke got tired of their pressing and Auba moving out wide to open up the attack when Laca came on. Shaqiri was by far the best player on the pitch.
I’m just glad we won & contributed to Stoke being relegated ?
Spot on Mudson
Ok, Destroy is not a word I’d used to describe our win over Stoke but, despite playing pretty miserable during yesterdays game we still won. And before you all start going on with the dubious penalty shout that might have been the catalyst to our improved, albeit latter performance. I don’t care, a win is a win to me. Ozil might’ve inadvertently stubbed his toes into the ground which impacted on Martins challenge and Danny Wellbeck might have done a Tom Daley the other week but loads of teams have taken a dive against us in the past, even in more blatantly theatrical instances and those same old tunnelled visioned pundits and plaudits within and outside the media that line up to castigate Arsenal have time and again managed to reason it away when we were on the arse end of a bad decision. “oh we were the wrong side of the man, we gotta stay on our feet, we were impetuous and rash”, and some !
Okay, that aside, again, we weren’t nowhere near the level we know we can play at and we still won. We played Stoke who engaged in their normal defensive and industrial style of football against us, we weren’t at the races and still managed to turn them over, Job Done !
But still despite this win, so called Arsenal fans still aren’t happy. But are happy to agree with the ex players and so called expert pundits who have always had it in for Arsenal from the get go. Rather than acknowledge that it was a win, Townsend, Sutton and whoever else decides to stick the knife in, are all of a sudden experts on just how Arsenal should go about it’s business on the field. No matter how we play or whatever the result, especially in our favour, we didn’t deserve it. All the teams that we beat just rolled over for us and we were lucky !
And what makes all that crap more unpalatable is Arsenal fans go along for the ride in such criticism. Arsenal have for a long time endured quite a lot of negative press which seems grow in it’s momentum year in, year out. The criticism might come across as if it were born out of some sort of welfare concern for Arsenal but, it’s nothing more than it obviously is, which is a contempt and dislike for our club.
Okay, I get that and that doesn’t surprise or phase me but, it does annoy me that Arsenal’s own fans join the bandwagon !
It seem like the attentions has turned and it’s not just about Arsene Wenger but more to do with the club, team as a whole. He sets out his side, lines them up against the normally physical and industrious Stoke side. We get a win but still that’s not good enough. Not happy with the manager, not happy with the team because everybody else is telling us we’re rubbish !
The sheer wave and power of negative press towards Arsenal has whipped up such a frenzy that our own fans are now joining in with the condemnations of the club. This sort of of phenomenon is not too dissimilar to the right wing press doing anything they can to sully the reputation of Corbyn. Using the power of media as the untamed dog that it is it’s mouthpiece and everybody else believing it’s reputable news.
The footballing press has equally got it’s axe to grind with Arsenal, a few has been players add fuel to the fire and all of a sudden, Arsenal fans start believing the hype !
Nice to see a new member on here
This is just the sort of rubbish I WOULD EXPECT A CORBYN SUPPORTER TO BELIEVE IN! You are clearly at a complete loss to explain EXACTLY WHY, we vast majority of fans are sick and tired of him and can’t wait to see the back of him. But a Corbyn supporter being in touch with the reality of life is too much to expect. And so it has proved in your case!
I love arsenal so much that anytime d team win, I feel so happy. If stoke had beaten us yesterday d way they did first leg what would have been d response of those who r not happy with d win. I support arsenal not Wenger
@Jon Fox
okay, forgive the expletive. But your still an arse as I don’t care what you and your cronies think of Wenger. It’s probably the same that a lot of people would love to see the back of you as you bring no value to anything with your bile and bitterness.