The last time we enjoyed an extravagant midweek score and performance in the Champion’s League we returned to earth with a bump at the weekend. Despatching a Ludogorets side (which has proven to be far better than the naysayers ever suggested) with style and six of the best, we returned to face Middlesbrough at the Emirates. Most of us were salivating at the prospect of more of the same but instead were treated to an hour and half’s frustration as the team from the North east put in as organised and determined a defensive display as one could hope to see.
Stoke City have the potential to pose similar problems today. Sitting in the middle of the table they are well used to frustrating more illustrious opponents and on occasions even embarrassing them. I’m hoping that the experience against ‘boro will stand the team in good stead although to be fair we didn’t fail to beat them due to a lack of effort, we just had an off day.
The team Stoke will face today are in very good form both individually and collectively and the confidence with which they went about their work on Wednesday will surely inform the way they go about it today. Alexis is the outstanding player at the moment playing with the kind of verve and audacious invention which cannot help but remind us all of heroes from a bygone era.
Like everyone else his partnership with Özil has tempted me into comparisons with the days of the Henry/Bergkamp axis. I’ve decided not to go down that particular avenue of analogy simply because I’d rather enjoy the here and now. Also I have a sneaking suspicion that there is mischief in the motivation of those drawing such parallels. Set our players a ridiculously high bar and they can easily be dubbed as failures should they fail to clear it.
Now I know there are some of you who enjoy the comfortable indulgence of middle brow middle ground moral superiority and will see such thoughts as more evidence of an unhinged paranoid fantasy. It is what makes Positively Arsenal such a broad church and far from decrying your chosen position I salute your ability to shuck off and dismiss the mounting evidence all around you. However when each month brings a new media campaign against our club it is surely forgiveable if some of us begin to question much of what is said about us.
The Black November stories have now been replaced with the destabilising ‘want away stars’ transfer stories. I can only assume the hope is any drop in form from our leading lights will result in negative reactions on the terraces and online. The stick to beat them has been provided and already I’ve read comments comparing Sanchez with Van Persie so it seems to be working.
The manager and the players have to cope with this phenomenon as best they can and just get on with their jobs. It must surely bring at least a rueful smile when they see the Heroic Harry headlines which accompanied Spurs ignominious exit from the Champion’s League. Still, overcoming adversity is part of the make up of all top sportsmen and if they can shrug it off so must we. Like the penalty embargo and opposition players being allowed to kick ours with impunity, it is wrong, unfair and there is bugger all we can do but suck it up. Or pretend it isn’t happening. It’s all about your chosen coping strategy I suppose.
Hopefully Stoke will come to play football and not kick their way to a point. I confess I’ve not seen much of them this season but in the interest of research and because I’ve been too ill to move from the chair I spent a little time catching up with their last couple of matches. In Arnautovic, Adam and Shawcross they have some renowned brutality to call upon if they sense any slackness from the referee. However Shaquiri and Allen are both skilful, capable players, and this isn’t the same one dimensional Stoke side we once knew.
Mark Hughes suggested Shawcross may not travel to London today so that’s encouraging. He also seemed confused when interviewed as to why his team can win at Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge, but not the Emirates. I suspect it’s down to them scoring less goals than us but I’m not an expert and lack his experience in the game. Stoke have been attempting to emulate the Welsh national teams 3-4-3 formation which served them so well in the Euros this summer. Asked whether this experiment would continue against Arsenal Hughes suggested that his tactics might be dictated by the players he had available to him.
So much for research. The simple fact is top teams don’t react to their opponents. Rather they try to impose their own style of play onto the match forcing the other side to adapt. Whatever the tactical approach Arsène will have seen it before and the players have the experience to deal with it. I sometimes wonder if confidence and current form don’t play a bigger role in any case. I’m not suggesting that if you played nine up front and one in midfield that it would all work out as long as the team was feeling chipper that day, just that there are more variables at play than how the line up looks on paper.
Anyway, the kettle has boiled and I need another Lemsip so I’m going to shuffle off back to bed and leave you to enjoy your Saturday. Here’s to three points and some scintillating football. See you at three.
Positively Arsenal 
crouch on
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crouch almost scores withing seconds of coming on
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iwobi fires home after taking the ball on edge of the area off the prone alexis who had been fouled 3-1
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77 mintues alexis off giroud on
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we are top scorers in the bpl
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See it is now 3-1. The data is clear, we are a much better team progressively. No fear, no despair.
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the goal midweek and another today and you can see the confidence and the spring in the step of iwobi.
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stoke mess up a freekick afc get possession, mason makes the freekick be taken again, there can be no doubt.
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Shotta, (big lol)
Your point is proven!!!
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Mason tried to screw us but we have sufficient quality to beat 12 opponents on the field.
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Trust the unbiased data HenryB, not the Fake News and the sensationalism of the mainstream media.
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FT: Arsenal 3-1 Mason
a good comeback win against the twelve men.
walcott goal was a great finish
ozil goal was a deft header
iwobi goal was a fine curled finish.
mustafi out for a few weeks with a hamstring, but gabriel is playing the best football of his arsenal career and we have holding in reserve too. today ramsey not even in the squad and per and danny only a few weeks away from return, we have a strong squad. we have everton away midweek, and man city next weekend.
we are top of the league, and are top scorers in the bpl.
anyone know how many penalties given against arsenal this season.
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shotta we should not have to beat 12 men, but sadly that is how it is. Someone mentioned earlier as to why wenger and gazidis don’t kick up more about it or do something about it, well I think its clear to them as it is to me, that there is nothing we can do within the rules to stop it and we are refusing to partake in the buying off of officials.
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Made an in form, difficult team look pretty ordinary at times today. Very gratifying to see. Mustafi’s injury a real disappointment but at least Gabriel was match fit and up to speed and with Hector back we coped with the change seamlessly.
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had to laugh today, i had final score on in the background and if you went by their updates from the Emirates it would have you believe that Stoke had chance after chance and were by far the better team, and that arsenal’s only 3 efforts on goal were all scored.
by the way kevin kilbane really does not like arsenal, another pundit who will gets lots of work.
jeez just noticed that Arsenal are one of 6 bpl teams to score 3 goals today, in just the five games so far today. lcfc v mcfc to come
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Top of the league and that is some run since the defeat v Liverpool.
If we were any team other than Arsenal the media would be absolutely wetting themselves over us.
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Not sure Eddy but feels like we get as many dodgy penalties (and red card) against us as Spuds get dodgy penalties in their favour.
I’m exaggerating, obviously. Slightly.
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how i expect our uber bloggers to report the game
cech has not saved a penalty in years, finished
mustafi injury means our season is over
coquelin is useless
xhaka is a liability, and should have been sent off for that most blatant of elbows to hand them the penalty
apart from his goal theo was useless
ox was useless
apart from his goal ozil was useless
alexis looks burnt out, or disinterested, he is clearly pissed off by not having his wage demands met
don’t give me top of the league, its only December, we won’t be there in May.
Arsenal got lucky today, stoke the better team and stoke are useless, the win only papers over the cracks.
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RB Leipzig lost today and Bayern with a 5-0 win replace them at top of the league on goal difference.
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Theo getting a coffee machine for christmas, as he got his 10th goal of the season today.
Ozil got his 9th goal of the season today, the most he has scored in a season for afc.
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stewart black @StewBlack 33m33 minutes ago
In fairness to Mason he had a split second to decide whether we had less chance if he played on or from the free kick. Gambled. Lost.
classic steww
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ArseStat @Arsestat_ 10m10 minutes ago
Howard Webb says Stoke penalty was soft, I strongly agree.
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Sorry to hear that you are poorly Stew, but it certainly didn’t affect the quality of your writing! I would say ‘get well soon’ but speaking as someone going into week 3 of this thing that is going around, I’m not so sure. Having missed 2 games recently I was glad I wrapped up warm and got myself down to the game – what a tonic that was. Hopefully it was a welcome pick me up for you too
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afcstuff @afcstuff 19m19 minutes ago
#afc most goals & assists this season (all comps):
Alexis 21 (13G, 8A)
Özil 14 (9G, 5A)
Walcott 12 (10G, 2A)
Oxlade-Chamberlain 12 (6G, 6A)
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Tom Gordon @GoonerGordo 48m48 minutes ago
HAHAHAHAHAHA. LOOK AT MARK HUGHES. Wanker.
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Wenger says Mustafi out for a minimum of 3 weeks.
Winter break for the lad.
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Andrew @ 5:04pm – Confirmation of my blog: Arsenal’s Deplorable Unbeaten Run continues. Nothing to see here by the mainstream media.
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arseblog @arseblog 50m50 minutes ago
With Shaqiri taken off, Lee Mason is now the fattest man on the pitch
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I salute their mental strength , coming back to win well after yet another attempt to kickstart an opponent by the referee.
It now seems penalties are given when players deliberately run into contact to get them.
You could say things even themselves up, we got four penalties at the start of the season, but we now have conceded four against Hull, then Sunderland, Tottenham and today..and let’s face it some of them are extremely dubious, a bit like Xhakas red card.
But again, well done to the team, and especially those defending our area, they do so knowing full well there are refs out there just waiting to punish them.
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10 minutes in and its lcfc 2-0 mcfc
can’t help but think that mcfc are suffering a little hangover from their title winning party six games into the season.
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spurs v man u tomorrow, and as it stands Arsenal are 7pts and +7 goals above spurs, and are 13pts and +18 goals above utd(but jose says he has the prettiest wife at home).
I’d like it to be a draw, and would be even happy enough with a spurs win, but I could be persuaded that a utd win is good too.
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one other thing on the spurs v utd game, I really really really want spurs to get one of their dodgy penalties tomorrow. Not only so the pro utd media will highlight their antics, but also cos I have a mate who supports utd and over the course of the season so far when we have discussed football he does not agree that spurs dive, I want to see what he will say if spurs cheating hits utd.
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I will take a draw in the Divers Derby, with a strong ref, cards for the inevitable cheating, media outrage at the diving……..wonder in which parallel universe that will happen?
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ha ha ha, lcfc have got a 3rd and this means every home team in the bpl today have scored 3.
pep’s reinvention of football is not going as well as media had us believe.
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City really taking a bit of a pasting!
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Positively Arsenal @Blackburngeorge 1m1 minute ago
The problem here is that some of our fans will demand we go to City and batter this “poor City team”
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https://www.premierleague.com/video/single/185196
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man utd are 10pts off bottom spot in the bpl, and 13pts off top spot
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Positively Arsenal @Blackburngeorge 49s49 seconds ago
Do’t worry, the pundits have put their finger on City’s problem. NO LEADERS ON THE PITCH, they say.
Oh? That old chestnut?
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gunnerblog @gunnerblog 1h1 hour ago
AW: “The minimum for that kind of injury [Mustafi] is 21 days. That means he will have a nice Christmas.”
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Not so easy managing in this league, even for the so called best coach in the world…..and let’s face it, his record suggests he is pretty good….
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Sergi Domínguez @FutbolSergi Sep 24
10 official games for Manchester City under Guardiola, 10 wins. Imagine when he actually “adapts”, eh?
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And then there were 4…..
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A lot of goals around today.
Wenger post match has mentioned that’s three pens given against us at home, and not one of them convincing, adding that despite that, we came back.
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‘WE HAVE CREATED MOMENTUM’
Arsenal went to the top of the Premier League table after beating Stoke 3-1, and the manager was very satisfied after watching his side record their third win in eight days.
Arsène Wenger spoke to the media after the game, and spoke about the importance of the win, going top, and the improvement from last season.
Read below to find out what he had to say:
on working hard for the win…
Of course. We expected that. In the last nine games Stoke has lost one, in the last four away games they didn’t lose – including Man United. They had a convincing win at Watford. We have given a lot in the last few days at West Ham and at Basel. So we had a hesitant start, but again we found the resources being 1-0 down to win the game. And we have now had three penalties against us at home and not one of them was convincing. Despite that we came back and won the game.
on a winning week and his team’s resolve…
(The aim was) not to get my frustration into the game and to keep our nerves and our composure, that’s what we did. We kept passing the ball and we didn’t panic, linked with the fact that we had some positive results for a while now and we have created a momentum that gives us strength to believe in our game.
on the team’s backbone compared to previous years…
Look, we were not too bad last year. We finished second in the league. I believe we have improved, yes. But we have to show that on a longer term. I believe that we have created confidence, I think we are ambitious – but what is at stake is to keep urgency levels very high, humility levels very high and togetherness very high. We have to show that in every single game now. Then we will see where we stand.
on going top…
It’s good. But let’s wait until tomorrow. At the minute there is no difference anyway with the other teams, there is Leicester v Man City, there is Chelsea v West Brom tomorrow. But we are in there. No matter what the results will be. So that’s good – we are in the fight.
on the psychological benefits of being top…
Psychologically it is difficult to win when you have to win, when everybody expects you to win. I believe that we want to build a momentum and when everyone expects you to win the game, you want to win it. Especially at home. When you analyse last year, last season at home we did very well against the top five and we dropped points at home against teams in mid-table. Certainly that is our challenge this year, to continue to do well against the top teams but as well in these kind of games, like Stoke today, where you have to win and we dropped some points last year.
on the bench contributing…
I have top quality on the bench – there’s not one player you can question. I must say it’s general in the Premier League. When you look at the teams we play against, even the mid-table teams, when you look at their bench, there’s top quality on the bench. They had Crouch coming on today, who nearly punished us. It could have been the 2-2 on a header.
on Stoke’s penalty…
It wasn’t a penalty, because it wasn’t a foul. If every push is a free-kick, watch the game again. I don’t think that there was an attempt to make a penalty at all. There was no foul.
on Mustafi’s injury…
It’s a bad one. He had nothing in midweek. I would not have played him today (if he had). I had Hector Bellerin on the bench. I could have played Holding or Gabriel. He wanted to play in Basel, because he said ‘no it’s nothing’, and it was completely clear. I checked three times and there was no problem for. I don’t know why it happened, but it looks a ‘good’ hamstring strain.
on the timeframe for Mustafi’s return…
Look, the minimum when you go out like that is 21 days. After that, today is December 10, so you are 21 days, that means he’ll have a nice Christmas!
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20161210/-we-have-created-a-momentum-#vb1JkHoxOh4yqBui.99
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seemingly Mark Hughes walked out of his press conference when asked about stoke fans singing “Aaron Ramsey, he walks with a limp”
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Reiss Nelson has signed his first professional contract with Arsenal
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Just rereading my earlier posts, forgot about the Bournemouth game…..think that is three dodgy pens against us in our last three home league games?
Can any other team match that unusual feat?
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