After their 4th win in the last 5 league games Arsenal are just 3 points outside the top 4. Every year Arsenal go from looking like the elephant man trying to get laid to George Clooney having to fight off hoards of lookers. (Read it properly you dirty pervs) This makes the match against Stoke a must win match. There is some bad news in that Oxo Chamberlain is out with a hamstring problem, but the good news is Xhaka is fit Stoke have been on the beach since March. Unfortunately for them they are not buff beach ready types...they are more of the slobby hanky on head types so they will simply roll for you lot over like a beached whale. An added drag factor for Stoke is that they still have Mark Hughes as a manager. There are rumours that this poor mans Graham Souness is only still in management because Stoke are paid a fortune to not sack him to prevent him becoming a pundit. A brilliant documentary series was made about life in Stoke in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It captured the life, the history, the beliefs and the culture of the area. It is well worth a look and it was called League of Gentlemen. Stoke fans sing the Tom Jones song Delilah. Some people find it strange that a song about a bloke murdering his girlfriend is sung by their fans but when domestic violence is the only entertainment they have apart from their pottery museums and their Tony Pullis theme park it begins to make sense. It'll be an interesting tactical battle. When I say interesting I mean that it'll not be as pointless as the Sunderland v Southampton match on Saturday. Wenger has commented on how Chelsea winning the league with their brand of football is not good for the game...yeah that's right...piss off the best team in the country 2 weeks before you play them in the cup final Mark hughes has said nothing of interest ... ever.
P.S. I ****ing hate Mark Hughes and he hates Arsenal. I hope we make it a thoroughly miserable day for the ****.
Nice brisk start from us. Monreal getting lots of space down the left, was unlucky not to score with that header that hit the post.
It's funny we have players like Coquelin 'gives 100% but just isn't all that good' as well as Mesut Ozil 'incredibly gifted by plays with absolutely no urgency or intensity' in the same side.
Decent half that from Arsenal. Kept the ball well, passed it around, found space on both flanks and defended well when we didn't have the ball Going in at the break deservedly ahead
2-0. Ozil. Lovely stuff. Not sure what's going on as Stoke always seem to give us a torrid time at the Britannia, but so far, they've been very pedestrian. Not complaining though, I'm glad we're fully taking advantage of their sloppiness!
Nice bit of commentary about the Wenger out plane in the first half. 'Arsenal fans in the stadium showing their support, whilst those who don't turn up hire a plane ......'
Game over. 2-0 up and Stoke have no chance of coming back. We've played some lovely stuff and dominated.
Decent game, defo moved up a notch with Crouch and Berahino coming on. One thing I will say is I never liked David Pleat, listening to him, now I know why.