Top performance and another stunning performance by Sanchez. Also good to see Coq playing well as our DM. If he can prove himself in the next few games and especially against tough City, then this would be the best thing for us in the second half of the season.
Not looking forward to the City game. Bad time to play them IMO as we are trying to gather some momentum and the City game will halt that. Hope I'm wrong but think we will get spanked.
To be honest this whole season has been a roller-coaster of ups and downs, so playing City now or later makes no difference to us. But it depend on which team turns up on the day. We are good enough to win but can play poorly and lose. We have all our best players back except Arteta, so it'll be a close game in my opinion.
Great performance! Completely dominant. It's really good to see so many faces back around the team as well. Having ozil, Walcott and Ramsey back in contention adds a whole new layer of quality to the match day squad. Hoping debuchy is ok. It was so unnecessary for artichoke to push him like that. What a ****. Coquelin has impressed me in our last few games, I've never really rated him that highly but his control of the ball and tackling look very good, maybe he still has an arsenal career ahead of him. Sanchez was on fire, the first goal was something else! Rosicky, Cazorla and oxo all played well too. Ozil when he came on showed flashes of what he brings to the team, though him and Walcott will need a bit of time to get to 100%. Bellerin did well when he came on, he has a lot of skill and electric pace. And koscielny, what a boss. So pleased to see him back in the team and regaining fitness. Great play for his goal to collect the loose ball, play out the pass to Sanchez and then use the space he just created to get on the end of the cross and score. Brilliant to see from a defender! Happy with the result, back above spurs and a positive feeling to take into our game against City having got revenge on stoke in such a dominant fashion.
I'd take a point if you offered it to me, but with Aguero back and Silva who always seems to cause us problems, along with City's excellent home record against the bigger sides, I just can't see us beating a big side away from home. Partially this is down to Wenger's tactical naivety in away matches. If we start fast like we did today we have a chance of getting something but if we start slow, which we have a habit of doing, then it will be a question of how many they will score.
Arsenal will beat City. City have not looked that great and i think Toure is missing which has a big impact on them. I think it will be a very very god second half to the season for Arsenal with all the players coming back into contention.
It was great to see Ozil and Walcott back playing today. They are both a bit rusty, to be expected. But with Santi and Sanchez playing around them, I'd expect to see them push on for the 2nd half of the season. It's crucial that we keep Sanchez and Kos fit
Not looking forward to playing City away.. we haven't performed well in an away game for ages now. However City's defence is exploitable..
Missed the game but recorded it and just watched it back and it was a very solid performance. Early goal always the key against teams like Stoke and after that it was pretty easy to deal with them. Sanchez match winner again, best player in the league at the moment. Also gutted for poor Debuchy, when he has played he has been seriously good but the guy has had no luck with injuries this season.
I still hope we give him a contract extension. I don't think he should be our starting DM and we should still go for Morgan S. or Bender in the summer but as backups go he's been impressive. With Arteta's legs seemingly gone and Flamini declining he's the best option we have right now.
I'd rather Arteta starts most games. Always think people don't give him the credit he deserves when he plays but I appreciate that's not a popular/fashionable opinion. My concern, however, is in defence. I've a bad feeling Kos will be a 1 game on, 1-2 games off until he shakes this injury, a bit like King was. Losing him for the City game would be a massive blow. Yesterday though - piece of p*ss. First game in a while I've not been nervous and most of that goes to us playing well and, just a little bit, to Stoke playing so badly. Go sports!
