Arsenal v the rugby team. The footballers return

Posted on by Tony Attwood

By Bulldog Drummond

Here’s what a certain Paul Chronnell wrote in one newspaper column, just to get us going.

“Many Arsenal fans may be more interested in what Arsène Wenger does in the transfer market this month than this game.”

I have to say I don’t get that.  The transfer window is more important than a match???????????

I mean, what are we here for?  Surely the answer is to watch Arsenal play.  To make the guess work, invention and pure fantasy of the transfer window become something above watching a game means that one is actually playing fantasy football manager, not supporting the team at all.

Ah well, such is the life of the columnist.

Of course for the newspapers it makes sense, since a match is a one off, covered directly on TV or by being there.  But the transfer window lasts a month, and immediately it is over, the fantasists start the rumours again.

So what of the TV?  The BBC says Arsenal are in mini-crisis mode, which I think is rather sweet.  That must mean we have

  • full scale catastrophe
  • absolute mayhem
  • crisis
  • moderate crisis
  • mini-crisis
  • so-so
  • everything trotting along comfortably

Since no one has ever reported Arsenal as having everything trotting along comfortably there is no need to continue the scale onwards, but just in case you are interested, it ends with “fucking brilliant”.

Back in the real world, and according to Mr Wenger Mesut Özil is back with hunger, mental toughness and determination.

Of course the press are sneering at that because that is what they do best.  In fact by and large that is what they do.  But the truth is that for Özil being doubted was a new dimension to his game.  Particularly being doubted when having just been a central player to a staggering World Cup victory – but then that’s the English press for you.  Our country goes out in the first round so let’s kick the winners – especially the winners that ply their trade in England.  Mert is useless.  Mesut ditto.  So it goes.

But now we will soon have Mesut and an all firing Alexis in the same team, and lurking on the other side of the front line, a certain Theo Reborn.

The only problem is how to accommodate Santi Cazorla at the same time.

If we look at the table of games thus far we see this…

Player Games Goals
Wojciech Szczesny 24 0
Mathieu Debuchy 13 1
Kieran Gibbs 20 + 2 1
Per Mertesacker 27 1
Laurent Koscielny 15 1
Tomas Rosicky 4 + 7 1
Mikel Arteta 11 + 1 1
Lukas Podolski 2 + 11 3
Jack Wilshere 13 + 3 1
Mesut Ozil 9 1
Olivier Giroud 6 + 5 6
David Ospina 2 + 1 0
Theo Walcott 1 + 3 0
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain 19 + 11 2
Aaron Ramsey 18 + 3 6
Alexis Sanchez 28 + 1 16
Nacho Monreal 18 + 3 0
Santi Cazorla 24 + 5 5
Mathieu Flamini 19 + 5 0
Calum Chambers 23 + 5 1
Yaya Sanogo 5 + 1 1
Danny Welbeck 19 + 1 7
Abou Diaby 1 0
Emiliano Martinez 5 + 1 0
Joel Campbell 3 + 7 0
Francis Coquelin 4 + 3 0
Gedion Zelalem 0 + 1 0
Chuba Akpom 0 + 3 0
Hector Bellerin 7 + 1 0
Isaac Hayden 1 0
Ainsley Maitland-Niles 0 + 3 0
Stefan O’Connor 0 + 1 0

I’ve highlighted four players who maybe could do with a break.  Mert won’t have one, because of the shortage of prime defenders at the moment, and Alexis won’t want to take one because he just wants to play.

Incidentally on the issue of defenders Mr Wenger said this week, “If I give you the names of the clubs who are out with a lot of money to look for defensive players, it’s unbelievable.”

But Chambers is now getting his break as the defence comes back from injury, so that leaves Santi Cazorla who could maybe do with a breather.  So a game starting on the bench soon won’t go amiss.  However maybe not this game, because we know Stoke would be out to get at Özil if he started back today.  So perhaps the next one.  So Özil on the beach Santi in the starting line up.

This then takes us onto the problem of Theo – I would certainly give him another start, with once again taking him off on the hour.

And then there is Ramsey – goodness how on earth do we fit everyone in?

Smoking Szcz

Debuchy Met Kos Gibbs

Coquelin

The Ox, Caz

Walcott Giroud Sanchez

Which would leave us, lazing on the sun loungers in the warm winter sun on the beach some or more or less of these

Oooooooooooospina, Bellerín, Chambers, Monreal, Flamini, Rosicky, Özil (entering the fray on 60 mins), Ramsey (ditto) Campbell, Akpom.

The latest injury list is…

  • Arteta (18 January)
  • Wilshere (March)
  • Diaby
  • Gnabry
  • Welbeck

Amazingly the list of injuries is shorter than the list of players on the pitch.  I can’t remember when that last happened.

Stoke have lost all of their last 12 league and cup games at Arsenal: six in the league, six in the cup.  The last time they won chez nous was 29 August 1981 (the opening day of the season, with Terry Neill as our manager)

We started that match with hope – having come third the previous season, and the team was

Jennings

Devine                                       Samson

Talbot    O’Leary    Young    Davis

Sunderland McDermott Nicholas Rix

Paul Vaessen was on the beach and came on for Devine.

We ended the season fifth, went out of the FA Cup 1-0 to Tottenham in the third round and the league cup 3-0 to Liverpool in the fourth round.   Lee Chapman scored the goal for Stoke.

As for this year, Stoke have scored seven of their 22 league goals inside the first 15 minutes.

And five of their seven wins have come against clubs in the top half of the table.  They have beaten Manchester C and Tottenham H.

We have lost just one of the last 27 Premier League games at Stadium Wenger and have scored in every home league match so far.  Not many teams do that.  Since the defeat at Stoke we have won four, drawn one and lost one.

Last time we played Stoke at home it was Mesut Ozil’s home debut, and all  three goals for us came directly from his work at set pieces.  Which is interesting because no other side has let in more goals from set pieces in the Premier League than Stoke.

As for that perennial undesirable, Mark Hughes, he has been to Stadium Wenger with five separate clubs and overseen seven matches here, and lost all of them.

Here’s on other snippet.

If you look at any commentaries they will tell you that this is our worst start since 1994/5.  Which it may be in terms of points, but consider this table from 1997/8

P W D L F A G.D. Pts
1 Manchester United 21 14 4 3 49 16 +33 46
2 Blackburn Rovers 21 11 8 2 38 21 +17 41
3 Chelsea 21 12 3 6 46 21 +25 39
4 Liverpool 20 11 4 5 36 19 +17 37
5 Leeds United 21 10 5 6 30 23 +7 35
6 Arsenal 20 9 7 4 35 23 +12 34

Not very exciting reading.

And now the current one

P W D L F A G.D. Pts
1 Chelsea 21 15 4 2 46 19 +27 49
2 Manchester City 21 14 5 2 45 20 +25 47
3 Manchester United 20 10 7 3 34 20 +14 37
4 Southampton 20 11 3 6 34 15 +19 36
5 Tottenham Hotspur 21 10 4 7 30 29 +1 34
6 Arsenal 20 9 6 5 34 25 +9 33

The difference between the two tables for Arsenal is one of the draws has turned into a defeat, one less goal scored, two more goals let in.

So yes it is worse by a point and a couple of goals.

Still, even a modicom of what happened from that point on in 1997/8 would be a welcome tonic on a cold day.

======

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148 Replies to “Arsenal v the rugby team. The footballers return”

  2. Sanchez, Walcott, Ramsey and Ozil will be targeted by Shawcross and his fellow thugs this afternoon.
    Three returnees and our top goal scorer.
    The answer? Coquelin will provide it and when he is awarded his yellow, put on Flamini.

  3. Yes but a modicum of what followed 10 years ago will never happen again. Also guys every time you delete a comment that does not resemble yours your no better than ISIS as far as I’m concerned apart from the unfortunate killing of innocent people. Free speech !!!!!!

  4. Overandout. Comments are not deleted just because we don’t agree. Our deletion policy has been revealed time and time again. You only have to do a little reading before commenting.

    Our articles are based on huge amounts of evidence and/or theoretical background that is reported on this site. We don’t repeat it with each article but it is there. You just make assertions that are contrary to all that evidence. Thousands have gone before you and it is boring. So no publish,

  5. wengers teams almost always go on a winning run during the season. we havent really had that yet and with players coming back, the back line fit. if we can find a little rhythm theres no reason we shouldnt believe at the moment.

  6. How many times will Stoke foul us only to have their fans drone the same old Arsenal chatnt?

  7. Will,Ive often thought that too and seems strangely ironic! I feel a bit sad that Arsenal have got caught up in some horsecrap relationship with Stoke (I understand why),it seems to have fired them up a bit too much.Such are the consequences of energising certain polemics.
    A 5-0 win would be great today.

  9. I’m looking forward to this game as I’ve missed the last couple. I think the second game I ever saw was Arsenal vs Stoke City. They had the great Gordon Banks in goal. What a thrill.

    This Stoke team plays a little more football than previous teams but any Mark Hughes team is not going to be afraid to ‘go in hard’. It will be interesting to see the team put out. Does Ozil get risked from the start, especially with City coming up next week. Does Walcott start. My guess:

    The Marlboro man in goal
    Debucy, Gibbs, BFG and Kozzer
    Le Coq, Ramsey, Santi
    Walcott, Giroud, Sanchez

    Ozil on the bench.

  10. Anyone want to run a sweep.

    Yellow cards to fouls for bother sides.

    I say Arsenal – 11 fouls – 4 yellow cards
    Stoke – 17 fouls – 3 yellow cards.

  11. Please do not call them rugby team as that’s tainting the rugby teams. Cal, them little muggers little for their mentality and muggers by any means dirty play to mug you!

  12. @Gooner S,
    And Stanley Matthews
    would turn in his grave after seeing the depths to which his beloved Stoke have now descended.

  16. For strange reasons, British media hates ozil, while the other languages of the world give praise and wrote a lot of good things .. I wonder if the press is colored or living in their own world.

    Stoke is stoke, they are just another 2nd grade team which had win by sheer tackles and judo slams.. Hope the ref gives some protection today. Hope our injuries list would be shorter than fit ones.

  17. The press hatred of Ozil could be down to playing for Germany, being Turkish, being a Muslim and being a big money signing by Arsene Wenger, who I think they also hate for being French, being intelligent and for proving their narrow-minded ideas wrong time and time again. Interestingly, many of the Arsenal fans who seek to find fault with this site also don’t seem to like either of them much.

  18. Seems to me that the press are scared of mentioning the overly aggressive style from Stoke. It is all, we are too weak to stand up to it.

    Does that mean we can start 11 UFC fighters and they say the Stoke players were too weak to stand up to them?

  19. Come on guys , make us proud ! A win and a clean sheet for starters .
    Up the Gunners !

  20. @Kenneth Widmerpool
    Second that indeed.

    //
    Why are the actual pitches not made to be all the same size? The grounds are obviously not the same size, but a size that will fit all grounds must be introduced. Imagine the tennis pitches were different sizes, what confusion it would cause to the players, then realise why so many free kicks are missed, how many shots are missed, all because of the differences in size of the pitches.

    length between 100 yards (90m) and 130 yards (120m)
    30 yards differences from club to club.

    width not less than 50 yards (45m) and not more than 100 yards (90m)
    difference of 50 yards from club to club.

    Remember the 100 yard or 50 yard run at school?
    That is how much difference there is between the pitches. That is a lot

    No wonder HOME and AWAY becomes so important, and football today creates so many problems and confusion.

  21. 5 Keys to winning today

    1) Start fast. We can’t allow Stoke to build confidence early.

    2) Midfielders and strikers getting tight and stopping the missile launchers. I don’t care how could Crouch is in the air, if the all doesn’t take off, he is useless.

    3) Movement from our players between their lines. To many times, our deeper lying midfielders look up to see no movement between the oppositions midfield and defence. We need players comiing short, running east to west and yes, some in behind, let’s get their defence out of dhape

    4) Strength. We know they are going to be “industrial”, “old fashioned”, “aggressive” or any other euphemism the press use for violent and aganist the rules so we need to be ready. The invincibles earned their right to play bby winning their individual battles first. This squad need to learn to do the same.

    5) Win the dreaded second ball. Yes, i am hesitant to mention it here but if the ball is lumped up, we need to make sure we win the bouncing all. Any flick ons havve to e us, as with point 4, we need to be strong and brave and channel the inner Tony Adams in us all. Stick yourboot and head in boys.

    Let’s beat them at their own game so we can batter them with ours.

  22. Nicky – Now there’s a good chant – Oh Stanley Matthews, your team’s a bunch of wimps that cant play ball.

    Saw the great man in Kenya when I was a teenager.

    I just hope our players don’t feel shy to hurt Shawcross or Adam. They need learning.

  23. Will – most will agree but there is a Riley crow in the middle & he will reduce us quickly if we get physical.

  24. I think we have to jump at the right time when the 2 foot lunge come and land on there thighs!

  25. Wwooohhh….

    Ramsey Ozil and Theo on the bench.

    Haha enough for Stoke to shit their pants worrying about the subs later in the game.

  26. Mike dumbass Owen & Andy pinoccio Townsend commenting on prematch.
    Ospina, Debuchy, Mert, Kos, Monreal, Rosicky, Coquelin, Alexis, Giroud, Ox & Theo. Ozil, Rambo, Chez, Bellerin on the bench.

  27. Team sheet:

    Ospina, Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rosicky, Cazorla, Alexis, Giroud

    Subs: Szczesny, Bellerin, Flamini, Ramsey, Ozil, Campbell, Walcott

  29. Im predicting at least 3 red card challenges from stoke to go unpunished, while arsenal will be denied at least 2 clear penalties but will somehow manage to win 2-1 thanks to goals from santi and alexis

  30. Quotes:

    Shawcross in the London Evening Standard 9/1/15

    “We Loathe Arsenal and love it when we beat them”

    “I don’t think they like us and we don’t like them”

    Mark Hughes in the SUN 10/1/15

    “The rivalry raises its head every time we play Arsenal and we’re sick of it”

    “It all goes back to an incident five years ago. Goodness me – a lot of water has passed under the bridge. Other angles can be emphasised”

    Well Mr Hughes, can I suggest that perhaps you have a word with the ‘shit stirring’ Shawcross, as well as perhaps a large section of your fans that seem to love seeing players having there legs broken.

    What an utter hypocrite.

  31. Jambug hughes has never like Arsene what else do you expect from and imbecile manager with a simpleton team?

  32. The commentators are bastards ignoring the Adam choke hold on Alexis. How can these shits be allowed to be called experts!!!

  35. Va Cong

    I’ll never forget a press conference Hughes gave once after a particularly fruity battle at our place. It went something like this:

    “Highbury, I’m not sure even where that is or who Wenger is”

    Now, I’m not saying that is word for word but it WAS a seriously disrespectful statement and what made it worse was that it was said in that mocking French accent so liked by all the Wenger haters.

    The assembled hacks loved it. Much tittering like 5 year olds hearing there first naughty word.

    It was a f**king disgrace to be honest, but as you would expect being aimed at Wenger it passed without judgement.

    Try doing that in a mock West Indian or Asdian accent and see how far you get.

    Hughes is a despicable man.

  39. Is that allowed….seriously.

    Not even a foul called!!!…

    Look at the push. Clear push. Shove.

  44. Commentator:

    “It seemed such an unnecessary injury for Arsenal to pick up”

    WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN??

  45. No 10 Orc pushed MD2 over the byline and injured him. Cos that’s what they’re all about. Commentatotors were already moaning that Stoke didn’t put their foot in. Ah, now they’ve smashed down OG12.

  46. Ox ox ox ox ox

    3 diving challenges doged before Ox had a go at the goal. 3 times lucky…

  48. Stoke player deliberate handball. Ref calls over Alexis to tell him off for asking for a card.

  49. And now as I know Stoke fans, they will be singing songs about Debs. Mother. Fuckers.

  51. The PGMO cunt cheats again. How there is no card for the push that results in a head injury plus a shoulder. The referee is a fucking cheat. I hope the fucker gets hurt so that he knows what he’s letting our players go through.

  52. All we get is how we have to ‘stand up to the bullies’.

    Then we get shown Giroud ‘standing up to’ Shawcross who’s all over him in the box and we get Smith telling us how Giroud will have to be careful.

  54. Stoke are getting up ahead of steam as the ref has allowed them to run riot. One day we need to sue a ref for failing with his duty of care.

  56. Slightly edited from The Guardian:

    > ‘Hey, give Stoke some credit,’ writes smeone, ‘It took them a whole 11 minutes to recklessly and needlessly injure an Arsenal player. By Mark Hughes’ standards, that’s progress.’

    And PGMO ass clowns feel it isn’t a coul or a card. Stoke supporter writes recklessly, should be red.

    COYG!

  58. get in thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeee!!!

  64. “Aw, something accidental from Crouch”. Never mind he does that every game. Commentator plays it down.

  65. its fair game more accidental than intentional. What a fucking heap of shit that the commentary is.

  68. Fair game!!!….

    Not a fair game at all.
    Our players are being slaughtered. And they don’t even get a talk. Let alone a card…

  70. What a fucking joke.

    Stoke: A fucking disgrace. What more can you say, just a fucking disgrace.

    The Ref: A fucking disgrace. Blind, incompetent or simply a cheat?

    The commentators: A fucking disgrace. Not a single fucking word of condemnation for Stoke.

  73. Why do they let those fuckin thugs play in this league, I wonder.

    MMA / UFC is where they belong.

  75. People reading Guardian commentary get it. But Guardian, BBC and Daily Mail EMPLOYEES think there is absolutely nothing wrong, and that Arsenal fans are getting mad over nothing.

    > Another email, this time from Mags: ‘In NHL (ice-hockey – violent, or at least supposed to be) the Arnautovic “push” on Debuchy would have resultet in 10-20 matches suspension and a huge fine. NHL tries to eradicate the pushes into the walls because they really cause heavy injuries. Football…

    COYG!

  77. Main Commentator: Do you think Stoke have crossed the line trying to be physically intimidating?

    Jim Beglin: No.

  79. Jambug – this is the reality of the Premier League. It is a corrupt outfit and they don’t care if you know it.

  81. I just hope Giroud doesn’t do something stupid to Shawcross (tempting as it must be). He has already put a hand in his face that if the Te had seem it would have been a red card. We just need to get out of this game with 11 players and 3 points.

  83. HOW just HOW have Stoke RFU escaped that half with no yellow cards????? Its embarrassing. Watch an Arsenal player get a yellow for the first rough challenge they make.

  84. He only asked the question cos he knew how his sidekick would respond.
    Simply a case of telling the watchers that there’s nowt wrong.

    Very, very sick. And corrupt.

  86. Fuck the 3 points I would love a pitch invasion and Shawcross, Adam, Amaut the bitch,Crouch & Hughes beaten up. No attacks to the head just the limbs and gonads!! It is so fucking annoying seeing the cheating on the TV. I get mad at the game but somehow seem to keep control when I’m at the Ems. God help Shawcross if I meet him in the street.

  87. Hope they go down to the championship, and way below. What a disgrace to a football team.

    @Tommiegun,

    They cant bully in the MMA, they will be kicked to ground. Its the infair rules in football. I am sure of a fight between showcross and Giroud happened, that thug would have been in the ground simulating. They are tough because they are allowed to, we are not.

    Am just hating this league. Its men lives they are playing with. Debuchy season may have ended, becaise that shit was angry he couldnt get to the damn ball first. And I thought Moss was ok, no damn card!

  88. Yesterday I was reading on of the sites speculating endlessly on Arsenal transfers for the January window, and one of the “tips” was that Wenger was considering an approach for Shawcross. A tad unlikely, I though, after I’d stopped laughing.

  91. > Alexis Sanchez was the star of the first half, but despite not having that many touches of the ball – he ALWAYS looks dangerous when he gets it. Stoke simply have no answer for the forward.

    > They can’t even get near him to try and kick him off the park – here’s his heat map from the first period.

    And not even a mention that kicking a player off the park is at the minimum a foul, and is probably a card (or two).

    COYG!

  93. I too am amazed at what Stoke get away with. I’ll never forget the armlock on Sanchez by Adams towards the end of the previous game. Astonished it wasn’t s straight red.

  94. One of the commentaries I am following, said that one of the Stoke substitutions was due to the player picking up a groin injury at half time. How do you get a groin injury at half time? In any event, that is a soft tissue injury, and probably is not impact related.

    COYG!

  103. That would only suit Stoke, to score 11 against them. 🙂

    Yes, Arsenal are frail. If you hit their legs with a sledgehammer, they usually break. What do you mean we aren’t allowed to carry sledgehammers on the field? It says write here in the Laws of the game for Hurley, that …

    COYG!

  106. Jambug it seems like the injuries were our own doing! I got 3-0 bet on for £50 I’d be happy if we scored more! LOL

  107. This transplant crow has attempted to cover his Arsenal in the second half after undeniable and blatant tilting in the first, obvious to all.
    –
    Good stuff from the Arsenal. Midfield has looked good today.
    Close from Santi!

  110. Though to be fair with the uniform required to join the cosy PGMO elite (it appears as if Mark Clattenburg has too much hair. And backbone.) so maybe transplant was the right word? Autocorrect knows.

  116. Is it me or does Ozil look a little bigger than before? Looks like they worked on his weight training also a little during the rehab. Glad to see him back on the pitch!

  117. Well done.

    Why do we seem as if we want to let Stoke score a goal?
    Silly mistakes just because we are 3 up?
    Be ruthless lads and keep a clean sheet.

  118. Gord, a lot of our problems are, whenwe have to take too long on the ball in the centre of the park, this allows teams to push up and pressure the ball player and the players he is most likely to pass to, then mistakes are made and we are running back facing our own goal.

    When we have movement and speed of thought/passing, teams can’t compete with us.

  119. “Stoke have let themselves down here”

    Of course. When you stop concentrating on chopping the limbs and think about playing football, then may be. May be.

  120. I really hope we don’t get the Stoke didn’t play well bollocks after the match. We were top class today.

  121. We were to fast for them to foul us there was alot more movement today in triangle play

  123. C O Y G

    This is what it’s all about fuckin thugs.

    Now, let’s all keep our fingers crossed for a dull 0-0 with some nasty red cards between the c***s and Shampton.

    Which goes to show, that when we play our game, there is not a single ref nor a single thug who can stop us.

  125. It was one of the best performance from Arsenal in years. The rugby-players were totally outplayed and we could have easily scored six or seven goals but I guess Wenger was worried that they would keep their “an injury per conceded goal”-routine going so we scored just one goal in the second half.

    Excellent performance against disgraceful opponents. Hopefully Debuchy is going to be just fine.

  126. Very well done Arsenal.

    I’m not feeling great. Of course I’m glad for the win but watching all the assaults from Stoke players – unpunished, makes me feel sick. Other teams watch and they all know they can KTSOOA Kick The Shit Out Of Arsenal.

    I find myself hoping for horrible things to happen to everything Stoke.
    I don’t like to think like that. Have an extremely long trip back to Orc-land, and may you lose every game for the rest of the season.

  127. The Mirror has a “What 5 things did we learn from Arsenal 3 – Stoke 0?” article.

    What does a reader of the article learn? The writers at the Mirror are really lame, and claim to learn things that wouldn’t trouble 99.999% of the human race.

    Moss, go drive into a bridge embankment on the way home, please!

    COYG!

  128. This is the way play against a team thats out to kick you. Quick short passes and quick movement. They cannot pick you out as you need brains to counter this type of game and since stoke don’t posses it they cannot counter it. Fantastic game.

  129. One news report, which had a telling picture, suggests that Debuchy has a suspected dislocated shoulder. I used to play broomball (vaguely like field hockey on ice with running shoes), and dislocated shoulders were common. How? Nudge someone from behind into the boards. What happened to Debuchy? Got nudged from behind into the boards.

    The shoulder typically has problems with dislocations and separations. In a dislocation, the call slips out of that sorry excuse for a socket, and either moves forward (towards chest) or backwards. In a separation, the shoulder moves up. The problem is the socket really isn’t effective, the shoulder is mostly held together by ligaments, and a few prayers.

    Get him drugged up, wrap a towel or sheet around his torso to anchor him in place, grab his arm, put a foot near the armpit for leverage, and pull the arm to get the ball to slip back into the socket. And then treat the shoulder for a bad sprain for quite a while.

    —

    Hughes: Quit saying we are bullies. The team got so tired from kicking the shit out of Arsenal, that we just couldn’t stop them from scoring. If Moss would have given us the 4 penalties we deserved, we probably could have won that game.

    —

    COYG!

  130. Wenger has confirmed it is a dislocated shoulder. I’ll guess 6 weeks. If we are lucky.

    The mugger from Stoke should get 6 games. And the ref should be sat for 6 weeks as well.

    COYG!

  131. I thought we stood up to them and showed real aggression – apparently they too don’t defend well at set pieces and don’t like it when others get in their faces .
    And the ref….. its not his fault that we won ! He did try very hard though !
    And as for us , no red cards and only one potential serious injury , but then they too really tried to get more ‘breaks’!
    The local host said after our game ,that the Gunners fans would be hoping for a ManUre win ! How dense could he be ? Go marching on ,you Saints !
    WOO HOO , HOO !
    Up the Gunners !

  132. I have tweeted my abuse to the PGMO & dont give a toss what they do. I hope they take me to court because i will make a TV special on the bastards.

  133. Words cannot describe how much I love the force that is Alexis and the utter disdain I have for that entire bag of cunts that is Stoke. Every single one of those bastards should go straight to hell.

    Proud of the entire team today, exactly what we needed….not just 3 points but a convincing display ahead of the trip to Middle Eastlands.

    The midfield was fluid, fast, aggressive and were supported by a firm Coq. If there was any question of us buying a defender in this window that has been put to bed with Debuchy going down. We may need two now. And on that note, I watched several of the matches yesterday and I have to say Jenko was by far and away the best player on the pitch for the Hammers.

  134. Telegraph:

    > Stoke were utterly awful, all they managed to do was injure two Arsenal players.

  135. Gord I think there coach is gonna get flipped over the team is gonna get slapped continuelsly in the face and all out with fat face syndrome

  137. The sad thing about winning is that the haters pretend to love us. The 2 pillocks on the TV started talking about the quality of Arsenal after hoping that we would get kicked off the park. How do we play so well at home & so badly at Stoke? It is simple. We don’t. They get away with murder at Stoke and manslaughter at the Ems.

    Moss was a sad excuse for an official. Gibbs got injured & injured Chez when pushed in a previous game where the PGMO cheat ignored it. Here the evil bastard didn’t do naff all to Arnaut the bitch when it was clear that he pushed Debuchy while he was in the air with 2 hands. That threw him into the hoardings with force. But he’s not that kind of player!!! The Crouch elbow was so smartly ignored. In fact the bastard asked Crouch if he was OK. The FA are just as bad as the PGMO. Corrupt cheats. The Laws prove that the whole lot ignore the sporting requirement.

  141. And that local ‘smarty pants ‘ also asked if Arsenal are a one man team ? Where have we heard that before ?
    18 goals for Alexis , and AW doesn’t do tactics ?
    Goodnight ,guys .

  142. Im happy for this win, worried for Debuchy’s arm & very angry at the bent refree. Yes we won but the ref was a big fool. I guess Walcott will get on the mark against man$hitty.
    COYG

  143. Great Great balance today with Rosocky Caz and Coq in the middle..

    Defense played well too, stoke though gave us nothing to defend. Though we still managed to concede an offside goal 😉

    Anyone think that Debuchys’ injury could be a blessing in da skies? As wenger saw him as a CB cover means we have lost a player in two positions. We absolutely must, following the Debuchy injury Bolster defensively , surely>??

  144. Menace you are right! Even my sister asked wasn’t that a card for the. Push! She doesn’t even watch football! And she said crouch looked at where Montreal was and jumped and elbowed him! She said that’s a red!

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