Stoke v Arsenal. A full, comprehensive, all-inclusive and detailed report on the match.

60 Replies to “Stoke v Arsenal. A full, comprehensive, all-inclusive and detailed report on the match.”

1. You could not have put it any better, Tony. Excellent report. I swear we have been robbed of 2 points again.

2. apparently pushing a player in the back and to the ground is no longer a foul

3. Their booing of Ramsey is both pathetic and scary. Seriously, what kind of horrible set of fans boo a player whose career was almost ruined by their man’s action?

4. For the first time in my life I managed to watch a game with the sound muted, for almost the entire 90 minutes, inc halftime analysis (save for the first 9 minutes, or less). Disgusting. Can’t wait for these thugs to get relegated.

5. Al, that’s weird, I did the same thing too, never done it before.I watched the entire thing on silent

6. A Palace supporting friend said that they never have any trouble at The Britannia, so they must save it all up for us.

7. I thought we were denied 2 penalties by the Referee. Seriously no creativity from Rugby side.

8. Imagine Bojan or one of the other foreign lads going into the changing room at ht, going ‘ bloody hell, they hate that guy; what did he do to us? Did he injure someone badly or cheat us somehow?’

   ‘Well…erm’

9. Once again the malign PGMO allow thuggery, cheating and illegal gamesmanship to destroy the EPL.
   Riley out!!!

10. Sorry Tony, but that gibberish in your post is just bollocks.

    Neither Stoke or Arsenal deserved to win that match. It was a poor game of football, but we didn’t look like we were going to score today. If we had Özil and Sanchez in the team we might have won.

    Stoke currently aren’t as bad a team as they were when Rory Delap was launching his “howitzer” throw-ins. They deserved a point as much as we did.

11. But I have had a thing for ox chambo he was poor. The thuggery was careful and planned thanks to rotational fouling. Lovely report.

12. Another ref with an aversion to giving cards. Bet365 Stoke do get away with a lot.
    Still, top of the league though

13. Me and my son are huge fans of The Arsenal for years and we’ve been silent readers of UA . I quite never write here though, because of my poor english. (I’m french, so will you excuse my …english ? 🙂 )
    I usually try not to be the kind of guy always complaining about the ref. But today… Hey… Is that me or haven’t we seen the worst refereeing for a long time ? (apart the Dean’s one in Chelsea). Not a card, in spite of many fouls, (pushing, holding…)
    Special mention to the awful crowd. While watching the match, the Stoke fans were so dreadful that I wondered if we were playing Galatasaray or Olympiacos !
    We missed Ozil (you know, the guy who was a panic buy 🙂 ), Santi and generally a better midfield ability to keep and play the ball.
    So sad to see Theo and Ox (two players I like very much) fighting to get back their good play. Hopefully that will come soon.
    Considering the above, a draw is not that bad. We are lucky not to get some more injuries. Campbell is settling as a excellent player. Still top of the table. COYG !

14. Did I imagine itor did anyone else hear the Sky commentator fairly early on say something along the lines of…
    ‘Ramsey getting booed every time he gets the ball, it’s because he did something to upset the Stoke fans a few years ago’

15. Alex

    Your English is far better than my French. Mostly I speak computer.

    Welcome to Untold.

    Mick

    Yes, Ramsey did do something. He didn’t accept ShawIdiot’s apology for breaking his leg.

    Yep, it’s all part of the game. Besides, he isn’t that kind of boy.

    Fooey!

16. I haven’t watched an Arsenal game with the sound up for years. It makes it so much more enjoyable – especially when you can’t hear the morons in the crowd either.
    I recommend it.

17. As a general rule I recommend muting the broadcasting gibberish merchants for the Arsenal radio/audio commentary synced in to the visual broadcast.

    Stephen Hughes, Adrian Clarke and the in game commentators today were all simply much better.

    As an experiment today I subjected a poor Liverpool fan to this exercise following the earlier kick off with the occasional switch back to the to broadcasters petty plundits by way of comparison and they had no option but to acknowledge that

    a) the coverage and commentary was simply better. On every level.
    b) they don’t mute or not edit the balance of the crowd noise.
    c) no adverts just more of the above better commentary
    d) albeit the commentators on the Arsenal site are former afc players and fans they were less biased then the broadcaster’s commentators.

    Conclusion of this experiment:
    It was not possible for a lifelong Luverpool fan to deny the bias in the media coverage of AFC. The caveat could be that on the day of the Liverpool Utd game the petty plundits had more considerate coverage of th earlier game but that’s not an excuse or reason worth considering.

18. I watched the match with the normal sound and was appalled at the abuse levelled at the Arsenal players, particularly Ramsey who suffered GBH at the feet of Shawcross who still plays for Stoke when he should have been banned for life. The Stoke supporters are an absolute disgrace while the team deserves them by their own behaviour.
    As for the game, both sides were determined not to concede their positions in the League. Both defences were dominant.
    Stoke have changed their play for the better, although the Pulis-style sneaky fouling still remains, as it was bound to do under Hughes.
    Ozil was missed. On our beach, the only attacker was the inexperienced Iwobi which, for a team aiming for the Championship, is not good enough.
    Welbeck, Alexis, Wilshere and Cazorla are still not playing and steps must surely be taken to strengthen the attack in the January Window. 😉

19. Gentlemen.
    May I suggest you go onto to the Stoke fans forum(Oatcake forum) to see what they are saying about Ramsey and the song they were singing.It sums up this Club and most of there supporters.What a disgusting thing to sing.Words fail me!
    Ps.Can you ever imagine Liverpool fans singing that, never.

20. “that gibberish in your post is just bollocks.”

    I love that. Really gave me a smile.

21. While we rightly condemn the Stoke RFC fans, we should remember by contrast our own away fans – who despie being outnumbered in that horrible stadium – clearly made themselves heard and did a great job supporting the team. Well done the Arsenal away fans!

    I am tempted to describe the attitude of the Stoke fans as neanderthalic – but that would be a gross disservice to the Neanderthals.

    I look forward to the ref analysis for this match!

22. Ramsey must have the habit of turning down apology and refusing a quarrel settlement handshake too. I think he was once shown in the media picture to have refused the handshake of the Arsenal’s AAA chieftain.

    That’s aside. Ramsey save us 1 point today with his goal-line clearance which Cech latter held towards the end of the match. And just as I commented in my last comment posting, the Gunners have become too used to missing most of their goal scoring chances.

    The chances coming the Gunners ways today at Stoke were very few in numbers as there is no Ozil today to help create them many. Oxchabo couldn’t create much. Neither were Walcott, Campbell and Ramsey abled to do much in that wise.

    But the 2 ones that came Giroud’s way were wasted by him with one of it hitting low to the right goal post. The Gunners MUST overcome as soon as the Chelsea game at the Ems, their low conversion ratio of their chances and thereafter in their subsequent games.

    Arsenal have been playing dangerously to my disliking since they’ve climbed to the top of the table as they’ve been dropping points here and there. Arsenal have to be careful not to allow Man City to overtake them on the top of the table. Because Man City have the squad capacity to remain top to the end once they get there.

    With 15 BPL games to go, the Boss MUST do whatever is the needful for the Gunners not to drop more than 2 points in their remaining 15 BPL games to win the title on 90 points. Do I sound unrealistic?

23. Went there in the sixties and their fans were aggressive then. What really got up their noses was the 2 semi-final defeats. Don’t think they’ve ever got over them.

24. I always mute the sound even when watching highlights.

    I’ve just heard part of Mark Hughes interview following that rugby/wrestling/football match. It seems Mark Hughes is suffering from bouts of self delusion.

25. Arsene Wenger said that Stoke were very physical and very direct. In other words, despite recruiting some creative players, against us they decided to play more or less like they did under Pulis. How cowardly! But we got the point anyway.

26. I forgot to say, very funny report, Tony.

27. Sums things up perfectly! At least they didn’t lose on my birthday! What mental strength Ramsey has! 😀

28. Corruption.

    The BBC has a new article up, about corruption in Tennis (including Wimbledon Grand Slam games).

    There was no mention of Mike Riley, Premier League or FA people as near as I could tell.

29. This is my first time of posting a comment although have been read lots of articles written by Walter and Tony, more grease to ur elbow guys…… Kudos to Petr Cech he really put us in the game, 2point lost am just happy that we could end the match unscathed (without a serious Injury)

30. @btjgooner: ‘I am tempted to describe the attitude of the Stoke fans as neanderthalic – but that would be a gross disservice to the Neanderthals.’

    Very very disrespectful to the Neanderthals, honestly, how could you even? Cannot stand that club. Morons.

31. That was a disgusting match. It really amazed me how the ref could allow the pushing, the grabbing and all the nasty things to continue all the game without even giving one yellow card. That was amazing. I’m not sure how many times Campbell was fouled but the ref didn’t do anything at all. I couldn’t help asking myself, “is it that kind of things has been allowed to do now in the PL?” That’s really scary. If i were a professional footballer, i wouldn’t want to play in the PL, especially not in the Stoke’s stadium, with the supporters so primitive they don’t even know the meaning of the word “decent”. Lol

32. Tony – that gibberish was bollocks. The Dogs Bollocks!! Summed the Stoke fans approach to a tee.

    John – read & learn.

    Stoke fans – your mothers should have said ‘No’…. perhaps they did?

33. @ Va Cong – January 17, 2016 at 11:28 pm – Happy Birthday !

    I normally watch Arsenal’s games with the sound muted , as I rarely get any new knowledge from the experts ! And I can recognise most our players quite clearly( even if certain refs cannot !) and see for myself the level of skill and ability exhibited on screen. So for me commentators aren’t really required.

    I almost had a fit when Stoke made their last two substitutions – they looked like a twin pairing from the WWE or some martial arts proponents ! Were they on steroids ? The rest of the team too , all seemed beefed up ! What are they feeding them there?

    Tony – you missed out eye gouging , flailing elbows and arms , neck smacks , short punches to the midriffs and grabbing ! That said , I think that we passed that ,” Cold January night at Stoke test” with flying colours !

    WOO HOO , HOO ! Up the Gunners !

34. To be candid I have gotten use to the systematic bad officiating against arsenal. I don’t say anything when I am watching because I feel helpless. When I look at Wenger’s countenance I feel like crying because the man knows what is happening. I use to think that corruption is only obtainable in our part of the world. Thanks to Untold for all the good works.

35. I’m still working on referee data. I thought I might as well locate every FA, since all referees are located via those FAs. And I knew that some of my existing FA addresses (and the address for Chelsea) were not very accurate.

    The FA had a list of every county FA, with who the CEO, Chairman, telephone, fax, … was. Should be accurate. Well, I started at the end (W’s) and by the time I got to the N’s, there were 2 addresses I had to correct from the records at the FA. I was already unimpressed from how screwy most of these County FA websites were, and now this? Bunch of lazy buggers at The FA. What do they do with all that money? You would think they were the Canadian Soccer Association, or something like that.

    But, the new latitude and longitudes I was looking up, came with elevations. I can’t say I’ve studied English (UK) geography much. I used to tease a guy from the UK who used to work at Harwell, about this top of a Rocky Mountain that some dropped on northern Wales.

    In any event, there are places considerably inland, that have very little elevation above mean sea level, and places quite close to the coast that have considerable elevation. That might have something to do with propensity to flood, high water levels everywhere (just about).

    Oh well, maybe I can get back to sleep now. Hopefully I will wake up in the morning, and read about some meteor striking the Earth and hitting the house that 😈 Mike Riley lives. Or Stoke falling into the North Sea?

36. Good report Tony 🙂

    What has been done is done. Or not done. What matters is, we are still top of the League! What matters is how we perform from now till the end of the season.

    Let’s regroup and ensure that our next opponent go home after the match “singing the blues”!

37. @ MAnx Gooner Did you actually watch the game????

38. To get a point at a very in-form Stoke without Cazola, Le Coq, Alexis, Ozil (and without having Jack, Welbeck, Rosiscky on the bench too) was a fine result and credit goes especially to the defence and keeper who, at times, kept us in it.

    Having worried that Flamini would be inadequate cover at DM, have to say he once again gave everything and fought all the way however I must admit I was very disappointed and frustrated with Walcott, the Ox and Ramsey (apart from his fantastic header off the line at the end there). Their link play was generally poor, giving the ball away unnecessarily on countless occasions and consequently not only not doing much with our own posession but actually putting us under pressure defensively even more. For a so-called possession team, we can be quite poor at that at times.

    I hope and trust Mr Wenger can see that he has better players than these three in not only Alexis for Walcott but in Awobi (who really looks like he can create space for himself without losing the ball and pass very accurately) and in Elneny (who from I’ve seen on YouTube) is fast, technically superb and links up play very well.

39. Excellent & concise report on the match.
    Boo-ing Ramsey is just despicable!

40. Fishpie, I wonder if all the unpunished fouling wasa major factor in our being disjointed. And the Ox nearly got us a goal.

41. Morning all.

    I was stunned that so much pushing in the back was allowed, virtually from the first whistle. The rotational fouling was evident, it was clear that as Chelsea were instructed under Mourinho, Stoke were told to fould anyone getting beyond them.

    For years I have been complaining about this English attitude to football.

    As for the chants from the Stoke fans, what have Stoke City done about it? What about Shawcross or Hughes? What about the media? It is almost as if it is something they are proud of. Ramsey was a young lad who very nearly had his career ended by thug Shawcross. However, all the sympathy Shawcross received seems to have gone to everyones head and they genuinely think Ramsey is the guilty party!!

    Shit club, shit fans and the reason why English football is so far behind the Europeans. We are embarrassing neanderthals.

42. No suprise there,let look forward to our next match.

43. In someone else’s home I couldn’t dictate whether the sound should be on. Therefore I had to listen to the full sky crap. (I spent half time in the loo).

    I watched the post match thing with Shmichel and Souness.

    Ref Pawson earned his 365!

    Respect, Walter, but this is thee accurate post match report. (I’d still like to know what you thought, and how the AGM went, please).

44. Do they have schools in Stoke?

45. Mandy.

    You do wonder.

    What I find so surprising is the fact that the club seems to encourage this goading of Aaron Ramsey. Apparently, the reason he gets so much abuse is because he refused to accept Shawcross’s apology. It seems hurting that thugs feelings is more serious than lying in a hispital bed having an operation and months of rehabilitation. Can you imagine what it must be like for Ramseys family listening to those backward neanderthals.

    Even the media seem unable to grasp what a terrible message this sends out. Is this because it is Arsenal?

46. Mandy Dodd

    I looked at what I could stomach from a small random selection of their fans on twitter regarding the Wenger/Ramsey hate. Didn’t strike me as much different, intelligence-wise, from your average fan, including our own.

    They each insisted, however, that Wenger was a horrible man, a hypocrite, etc, who had grossly and unfairly disrespected their club, slandered them, etc.

    As for Ramsey, most of them, when called on it by an authority unconnected with us- i.e when threatened with shame and embarrassment- said it wasn’t them doing it (small minority, foolish of you to think otherwise), and they don’t approve of it…but you have to remember Ramsay didn’t accept the apology (or apologies in some versions) from poor Shawcross.

    Thinking about it, though, that was probably from the best, or at least nothing like the worst, of their fans, as it was those who were trying to respond to comments (from Le Tissier and other non-Arsenal football figures) saying they didn’t understand the Ramsey booing. Their equivalents of our ‘fuck off Wenger; get out while you can, Joel’ brigade are probably more bullish about it.

    As it happens, though, my take is that when confronted by football at its ugliest we should up our efforts not to respond in kind. A difficult thing. Best not to make it easy for those writhing about looking for justification for their actions.

    Now, let’s try help them out by coming up with an appropriate song to express apparent disgust towards a man who is guilty of refusing to accept the apology of another man who happened to smash the first man’s leg in two in an unfortunate accident.

    ‘it was an acci-dent, it was an acci-dent..’…ohh, you should accept the appo-logy..’ Ok, not very catchy and not a very football supporter song to sing, but I think it illustrates nicely how bizarre a sentiment that is, how illogical it is to jump from that sentiment to glorying in the leg break, and what transparent bullshit it is to say the hate is about the rejection of an apology; or, in terms of things we know for a fact happened, dignified silence from a player who rebuilt his career and did pretty well for himself.

    The unbelievable hatred you see on the faces in that Ramsey picture, the looks which would truly kill, brutally, if looks could kill, they can’t possibly be about not accepting an apology. They’re about…God knows, but it aint pretty and it’s about much more than football.

47. Agree Proudkev, havent heard Mark Hughes say anything against the behavior of those fans…mind you, he is known to despise our club…or at least the manager.
    Ramsey was quite right not to accept any apology from Shawcross, I am sure the Stoke player did not intend the outcome, but they pride themselves in playing in a way that makes such injuries more likely, and none more so than Shawcross.
    Didnt see any leg breakers yesterday, but a lot of snide rotational, sometimes off the ball fouling, especially when they attacked.
    Just a shame our football authorities and referees seem to go out of their way to preserve this retarded brand of football, and as they see Arsenal and Arsene as the antidote to this, our players have suffered….in some cases badly.
    All this makes me think of your excellent article about the northern side of the game…but really, Stoke aren’t even northern….in fact,they aren’t really anything.
    Quite amazes me though…looking at the photos of some of their fans….think Darwin could find a new primitive species there, the body of an ape related creature and the thinking capacity of plankton.

48. Mandy, agree with everything you say.

    Love the comment about Darwin, made me smile…..!!

49. Is it worth asking that terrible club why they think the Ramsey taunts are not worthy of comment?

    media@stokecityfc.com

50. I was very impressed by Butland who kept them in the game as much as Cech did for us. Hughes will do well to hold onto him for long but I’d guess the big clubs will pretty much all have him on their shopping lists soon.

    The petty fouling really effected our ‘flow’. Yes we get it most games but Ozil, Alexis and Cazorla seem to handle it a bit better than Ox, Theo and Ramsey do.

51. Watched the Arsenal at my local bar as I couldn’t make it home in time. No sound?
    I thought the mood between the Arsenal and Stoke players were surprisingly good. No new injuries. One point. Top.
    Just waiting for Barcelona.

52. Andy

    I don’t think it was “just” petty fouling, that nice boy (Shawcross) seemed to foul Giroud most of the match, with the fouls not called, Peters should have had three yellows – including one for a blatant dive, further a number of our promising attacks were stopped by intentional fouls – all this and more in addition to the pushing, pulling, obstruction, tackles intended to hurt and late tackles.

    The ref didn’t see any of this – or chose not to – a total waste of whatever he was paid to fairly referee the match.

    What the ref did “see” were some make pretend fouls which he gave against Arsenal. Another PGMO disgrace.

53. Pat, yep, no doubt the midfield pressing from Stoke (and liverpool) disrupted our flow but if more teams are better at doing this to Arsenal, we need to respond somehow. The quicker the opponents are in our face, the quicker, more skilful and cleverer our players have to become. In Campbell for instance I see a player who is very adept at dealing with pressing. He turns quickly, adjusts himself quickly, does split second pauses which causes an onrushing player to falter. Awobi does it too. As does Ozil. And Santi. But Ramsey is slow on the ball, slow at turning and over complicated. Walcott doesn’t have the skill and loses control of the ball. (The Ox has more in his locker and I think/hope is just going through a weird season and yes, as you say,he did nearly score). But if your game plan, as it is with Arsene, is possession, then players need to be nothing short of excellent at it. I feel it’s a little too haphazard with some of our players, frankly even in matches which we dominate.

54. Sorry Pat, you were making a point about fouling not pressing. Yep the centre back alongside Shawcross was pulling everyone’s shirt and the left back was very physical but Liverpool were, on the other hand, just pressing and because we kept on losing possession as we tried to break away, we invited sustained attacks. If Arsene isn’t going to fuse the team with muscle and body power, then he has to find quicker, smarter brains. At least for games where the opposition are really up for it.

55. My goodness, life must be miserable in that place if this is the best form of entertainment they get on a weekly basis.

56. Tony
    Having difficulty typing due to paroxysms of laughter. One of your funniest yet. Seems even some Untolders have no sense of humour or are too thick to get it, although it isn’t subtle. Thanks for an entertaining analysis!

57. Aw nd his boyz hve learnt to count d refs as their 12th, 13th nd 14th on field opponents, wich to me is great sportsmanship instead of protesting!I just wonder wy d refs, media,plundits, broadcasters et al are so undisguisingly biased against Arsenal; its gone beyond Envy, its in d realms of paranoia! Solution for me is for every Arsenal- club, manager, staff, players nd fans to work concertedly for overall success den all our detractors shall b put to permanent shame nd disgrace!!

58. Mandy.

    We’ve been downright insulting to Neanderthals, but now these jibes at plankton are totally out of order. Show some respect, please !

59. Love the match report. Yet another example of the referee Craig Pawson.. or should I say POORSon conspiring against our beautiful football. There were at least 50 rotational fouls and countless wrestles. I thought Ox-ChRambo were amazing today. Deserved all of the points that were stolen from us. Super Cech will now have to save us 2 extra points making 14 points all together. What has happened to the media nowadays too? We have to listen to Jamie CarraPool and his friends instead of honest unbiased pundits like Wrighty or Merson. Forget BBC and Soccer Saturday we need you on matchdays! I hope that the FA clamps down on opposition clubs fans and the media and their jealousy over Arsenal FC. If not just so that Mesut Ozil gets the recognition he deserves. #MR.Assist

60. Mandy Dodd
    January 18, 2016 at 12:00 pm

    What a glorious comment. Well done Mandy.