Arsenal moved up into 7th in the Premier League table after a 3-1 win over Stoke at the Grove today.
Arsene Wenger surprised everyone by choosing to rest Robin van Persie and play Marouane Chamakh instead. It must have been the Moroccan’s outstanding record of 1 Premier League goal since Nov 2010 that swayed him. Ultimately though, the events did nothing but prove the worth of van Persie and Arsenal’s need for a better alternative.
The Gunners took the lead in the 27th minute, Aaron Ramsey lobbed a beautiful ball over the top of the Stoke defence, Gervinho chested it down and rifled it home with his left foot. It was no less than Arsenal deserved, having spent most of the game in the Stoke half, who had clearly spent the week working on parking the bus.
However, it took friendly ref Lee Mason to get Stoke back into the game. Laurent Koscielny won a header cleanly in midfield, Peter Crouch fell over and Mason gave a free kick. From that set-piece Stoke played a bit of a head tennis before Crouch poked the ball home from 2 inches. Never a free kick but maybe, just maybe, we could have defended it better.
In the second half Arsenal found themselves facing Stoke’s parked bus again and again and with both Chamakh and Walcott having poor games it kept breaking down in the final third. Eventually Arsene decided to bring on his captain and within 7 minutes he put Arsenal ahead. Arteta played in Gervinho down the right, he drove into the box and pulled it back for van Persie to squeeze home at the near post.
And it was the same combo who sealed the game. Arshavin played in Gervinho down the left, again a burst of a pace took him into the box and the captain was there to stab home for 3-1. Our good friend Orbinho on Twitter tells us that van Persie “has scored 25 goals in 26 Premier League appearances in the calendar year 2011”.
Amazing stuff and the imact he made, in comparison with the contribution of the clearly struggling/not good enough Chamakh, is just incredible. It shows that without van Persie are rather too toothless and this is something that has to be addressed in the January transfer window.
For now, however, let’s enjoy a Sunday afternoon brightened by three points, two more goals from Robin, a great performance from Gervinho who’s added some real end product to his game, Demento getting smashed 6-1 at home by Citeh and Stoke and their ilk going home miserable.
You reds!
Is there a better striker in the world than RVP??? All this talk about Messi, Aguero, Silva yada yada yada…… Show me the numbers!!! And without much support too!! COYG!!
¨WHY ALWAYS ME..:P” -Balotelli…
To be honest, Messi has 16 goals and 10 assists in 14 games this season, and as amazing as RvP is, it’s hard to compare ANYONE to those kind of numbers.
But I still love RvP, definitely the best striker in the premiership <3
whatever !!
we love our RVP
Fuck Messi.
You think RVP couldn’t score even more playing at Barca??
FYI: Messi plays in the easy mode, RvP plays in the legend mode. Every player in Spain can score high number of goals, but in England, only the best can score.
Well done
Thank fuck for RvP…if only Theo had half his quality…
COYG…
Considering he’s only 21, lets see where Walcott is at 29 shall we?
Overall a rather beautiful day wouldn’t you say?!
The Chavs went down 1-0 to QPR…………
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA!
Well done The Arse. Who was at right back and how did they play?
Djourou. Did ok
3 deserved points, can’t understand how Stoke have beaten us in the past! There are a truly shocking team!
I think our 1st choice front 3 should be:
Gervinho RVP Arsh/Rosicky
Theo unfortunately has to revert to being super sub!
Gervinho left hand side, Arshavin right. I think we’d see Arshavin involved more that way, and it seems that the more he gets on the ball, the better he plays. Seems to work when he plays for Russia – even Pavlyuchenko looks half decent for them when he’s got Arshavin feeding him
I reckon Arshavins days of 90mins are behind him. He plays much better as a sub for us at the mo. Personally, I reckon we should drop Theo and play the Ox, Gervinho on the other side.
Agree mucho! One suggestion, give The Ox a shot against the bus parking teams. He’s less likely to be muscled off the ball as Theo was today.
Vermaelen sure must be scared of his place in the squad after that performance by Kos.
I think a backline that includes djourou/mertersacker/kos and vermaelen is only weeks away. Surely you can’t drop either sack or kos, so vermaelen for me should be playing left back. He plays there all the time for Belgium and wears the armband whilst doing so.
Van Persie is the most in-form striker in club football in Europe in 2011, the stats prove this to be a fact, over the course of three or four years however, becuase of his injury problems the ronaldos and messi’s overtake him.
Yeah, van persie won us the game, But for me this game belonged to Our friendly massive forehead winger Gervhinio, a goal and two assists isnt by any means a bad day!
Look at Theo pre Stokes goal, he looked good. His problem is he loses his head quickly when things start to go pete tong and then he over thinks everything. Its a shame he can’t have a joint I mean herbal cigarette before games to shut his mind up.
He should ask Arshavin and Chamakh to share theirs with him
RvP: 104 and counting.. (in twos!!!)
Gervinhos best game by a distance today he was excellent. Ramsey was superb, glad he made Lennie and his cohorts pay.
A simple message to Mr Wenger / Mr Hill-Wood / Mr Kronke:
Van Persie must stay. If he wants 150k a week then give it to him; if he wants 200k a week then give it to him – but Van Persie must stay.
No more fucking bullshit penny-pinching – Van Persie must stay.
It won’t be about money though.
Trust me, Arsenal have always paid their best players enough to make them stay.
Investment in January is crucial though.
All except Flamini, Cole, Adebayor, Nasri, and Fabregas. Clearly they weren’t offered “enough to make them stay.” And it’s because players like them weren’t and that our wages offered are not enough to recruit the best players from elsewhere–who do not owe Arsenal any loyalty, a word too often used in modern sport, that we need to “invest in January.” Fabregas was the only one of the above named captain, and he’s–rightly or wrongly–been given a pass due to his unique situation. Three of the others are called “C*nts” on an almost daily basis, though two haven’t played for the… Read more »
Was it not wages that made Mata go to Chelsea and tell me he hasn’t made a difference to Chelsea ?
Get rid of the crap we have on the books and pay the money for some decent players please
looks like we have 3 center backs of real high quality. who goes out when vermaelen comes back?
Vermaelen’s gotta work his way back in
I’d get Big V at left back. Sagna, Mert, Kos and Ver would be a formidable back four. With Wojciech showing constantly improvement, we could have the makings of another famous five (Seaman, WInterburn, Keown, Adams and Dixon were the other for younger fans)
I have to give to Gervihno…Theo can learn a thing or two from him on how to get into the box and delivery…. lovely sunday evening… Loving captain Vantastic…
There’s few victories sweeter these days, than turning over those lumbering, knuckle dragging buckets of monkey spunk. Get in!
A win of over The Orc Army of Stoke is always sweet! Gotta say that Shawcross has a face that only a mother can love, Frankenstein’s mum that is!
To be fair to Frankenstein’s mum, I think Shawcrass ended up at Stoke because she was sick of him smashing up her house, and sent him away for good. Probably should have drowned him in a river somewhere instead, but I’m guessing she was distressed enough having given birth to a dickhead like that
its clear as pie in the sky that we must buy some players to help van persie flurish even more.. we must build are team around this amazing player. we need more craft in the midfield. we also need a new striker to help van the man. its just a case of trying to win as many games as we can until january.
Fuck off back to Mordor, Shawcrass, and take your razored elbows with you. Might as well kidnap Lee Mason as well, I’m sure you’ll feel like a snack at some point when you’re back chained up in the castle dungeon
It’s almost as good as beating spurs. If blogs is right and I believe he is about rvp staying wil be down to January signings then we best hope and pray we make the right choice. Love days like this when I can watch motd with utter arrogance. Up the arse
…on a brighter note, that was Gervinho’s best performance so far. How come the Stoke defence didn’t find a way to kick him off the pitch by the hour mark? Looks like Pulis strayed from his usual tactics and failed, what?
Question: why is Shawcross called Lennie?
Character from Of Mice and Men
Thanks. Have not exactly seen it. Is he a thug or Something?
Seen it?! LOL
Google is your friend.
“Of mice And Men” is a fantastic novel by a US writer called John Steinbeck. Steinbeck also wrote “The Grapes Of Wrath”, which is another fantastic book , and coincidentally the future title of Tony Pulis’ biography….
Sorry, I got that wrong…the Pulis book will be called “The Gripes Of Wrath”. Mug didn’t look at AW during the fake handshake crap at the end, just fucked off down the tunnel….don’t bother coming back out…
He not he’s called a knuckle dragging monkey the wanker
Have to be fair, Chamakh is struggling, but I don’t believe he’s not good enough. He’s shown he has the quality, he was top man for half a season while RvP was out a year ago. I have no idea what’s happened, but I think he deserves our support, all this negativity can’t be helping. Why can’t Gooners just support their team? For me, if they wear the red and white, I’m behind them unless they disgrace it.
Mike, that’s the comment of the day.
Support is also due to both Carl Jenkinson and Johann Djourou, both of whom have stepped up at right back when required, despite some serious undermining from the stands and from forums such as this.
Well said Mike.
Although Van P scored two brilliant goals, it was a good team performance, everybody talking about creativity but AFC certainly look a better all round team. Good tactics Wegner to start with Chamak and bring Van P from the bench, I like how the team look more balanced and experience. Well done, I truly believe if it wasn’t money ruing the game, AFC would be top of the league…..
Alex Ferguson 1 – Man Shitty 6….
So I wonder what the pundits will have to say about Man United’s 6-1 pasting at least we had an excuse for our pasting that we got.
There won’t be any excuses Chris, it won’t be discussed after tomorrow. The focus will be on Chelsea having two sent off. Even when United have a bad time of it there’s always something else to deflect the attention to
It’s a bit handy that they have 2 reds will do us a favour for next week
Absolutely right, although Torres will be a straight swap for Drogba, and the Spanish hairdresser seems to be doing more than sweeping up the hair and serving the old dears their tea these days
Lennie from mice and men was a thick bloke possibly a stoke or spurs fan but don’t quote me on that 😉
I think Lennie from Of Mice And Men is getting a bit too much stick he clearly had more intelligence than Shawcross.
Andy he was a better footballer!
He’s not great but Chamkh worked their defence. He never stopped.
How did Ramsey play overall?
Going by the highlights, I’m very excited by him. He has a knack for scoring important goals, and it seems as if he’s rediscovers his vision and passing. Just needs to start bossing games now, and we’ll have a killer midfield.
Ramsey did well. Shawcross couldn’t get close to him, which is always a positive. I hope that none of us forget that Shawcross left United to go to Stoke, and Ramsey turned United down for Arsenal. None of what happened between them is coincidence or bad luck.
Stoke, get back in your caves.
Throwing their own shit at each other all the way home
While anal bating pulis
That comment has so bloody tickled me !!!
+100, Garry.
Match of the Day will be sweet tonight! If only the Spudletts had lost, that would have been perfect.
I would have recorded it and turned it into a DVD!
Le mason is a cunt. How could he miss a blatant elbow by shawcross? Cunt Cunt…
P.S : man u should change their name to massacred utd.. 😀 😀
Nice performance by †ђε ARS today,felt things are falling in place,I’ll be happy to see Ƌ great performance nxt week @d BRIDGE bt I can deal with whatever comes out of that game fixing ma gaze @ †ђε bigger picture(more dan 20 games left in d EPL).decent team performance I munst say&once again super capt Vantastic!
Who was that announcer who, after RvP scored his second, asked something like “Will he be the next to leave, Garry?” @#&%. Off.
Tony Gale was the co commentator on the stream I was watching, He is a west ham cunt, He was negative about everything the
Arsenal did. He asked the question about RVP. THE CUNT
Fat little west ham cunt
“It must have been the Moroccan’s outstanding record of 1 Premier League goal since Nov 2011 that swayed him.” Nov 2011 isn’t that the future? lol
Ooops. Thanks
hey if he’s a psychic and Chamakh scores one in November I for one, do not mind…
A great game for Gunners but I am a bit disappointed by the report and the overall negativity about Chamakh as well as this jumping on the bandwagon of “RVP is indispensable”. Let’s get the facts straight, Arsenal now have NO specialist striker (Bendtner is on loan). We do play Chamakh / RVP in that role but our game is such that we expect most of our front men to score. Chamakh came into this game after a while and played against a physical side who got lucky when Chamakh was fouled and should have gotten a penalty. Chamakh is… Read more »
Great comment SG_Gooner…..sums it all up perfectly! It was a team effort with everyone staying calm when the knuckle-draggers got the ref’s help for a free kick that wasn’t and scored. We are in the delightful position of having four key players returning in November (the Verminator, Diaby, Gibbs and Jenkinson) and all defensive midfielders or defenders! Our back line is playing very well and for the first time in a long time we can say that we have strength on the bench as well as on the field. My guess is we’ll see Frimpong, AOC, Park, Ryo and Benayoun… Read more »
yea i reckon too.a joint wud def
put him in a more flowing form.
Can players do that,by the way
toke one befo goin up?
Drug testing will find the spliff.
Up The Arsenal!
Manure 1 Manshity 6 HEAVEN!
QPR 1 Chelsea 0, Heaven, Platinum Class
What would we do without VP!?!?!? But like happy with the performance! Especially happy for Ramsey who a couple of weeks ago everyone hated but I stuck by the kid! Got mad love for him… Even though we had some patchy moments here and there and at times it was frustrating to watch we won… 3 points is 3 points no matter how shitty we play (not saying we were shyt today) finally in the top 8 and with so many teams dropping points things are finally finally looking good… Up the Arse! 🙂
i couldn’t watch the game cause my streams kept getting stuffed, but i haven’t heard (maybe cause i haven’t had a look at most of the comments), but match reports from arseblog and other sights indicates Djourou was alright at right back? did he have anything to do?
Ramsey’s lift to Gervinho looked fabregas-esque
3 more points. A good display on almost all accounts. I’ve lost all patience with Theo. Time to move him on or play h only as a sub. We just need to keep climbing the table. I think we should be able to finish third.
Don’t understand gunners who say we might be able to finish 3rd! There are still 20 games left and both Manure and Cheatski are starting to drop points. IF the Arsenal can beat Chelsea next weekend, the entire league standings will take another revolution towards North London clubs moving up into the top 4. The Totts are now in 5th place and we’re in 7th! Newcastle are doing well but for how long? Liverpool looked foolish against Norwich who were clearly punching above their weight and unless the Kop’s new signings start providing the goods, they’ll be in trouble. The… Read more »
we just have to keep improving and show the world we have quality.
Who says Manchester disunited doesnt have an excuse for loosing to Man Shitty. Damn right they do, they were playing without their best player….Howard Webb.
And unto Carling Cup matters. First eleven: Mannone -gk; Yenaris, Djorou, Miquel n Santos/Meade – Defense; Frimpong, Coquelin n Rosicky – Midfield; Ox, Benayoun n Park. Bench – Arshavin, Chamakh, Ryo, Afobe…whichever youth defenders that we have. Dont worry, I’ll be able to mention all of their names in 3years time.
Could “Arsenal” Wenger please get the guys to FOCUS after we score?…please.
Every time The Arsenal score we fall apart. Stoke’s goal was a banker (well done to the ref for gratuously awarding them the set piece in the first place)
I think I witnessed Mertesacker win an aerial challenge. Please confirm, I was smoking a fattie at the time and I may have been hallucinating.
Up The Arsenal!
Rude comments about Mertesacker aside, he DOES add value to our defence….PLEASE win some headers now!
Arsenal beating Stoke and Man U getting spanked, good times!
Even if Mertesacker hasn’t scored the like 17 goals yet as what some people expect of him he makes our defence much more dependable in set pieces. The opposing team know that we got at least 1 player above 6ft. He’s reading the game good and his positioning is great
[…] moments of celebration. Speaking to the Arsenal official matchday programme ahead of yesterday’s 3-1 win over Stoke City, the captain […]
[…] Match report is here and you have to check the previous post for links to videos. […]
This weekend results make me so much more hopeful for the trip to Stanford Bridge. Not only did Chelsea lose to QPR but Drogba got sent off wich is nice because he has made a terrible habit of scoring against us.
A few weeks ago who would’ve thought our hearts would be full of hope instead of dread at the thought of playing Chelsea away?!
He’s skilled
He’s Dutch
He scores with his first touch
He has no mersy
He’s Robin van Persie !!! 😀 🙂