Stoke City 3 Arsenal 1
Arsenal faced Stoke today in the fourth round of the FA Cup. Changes for Arsenal as Cesc Fabregas and Denilson the only two who started against Bolton in mid-week. Sol Campbell made his return today!
Virtually the first attack of the game and Stoke had a throw-in. Just 68 seconds into the match Delap’s long throw saw Fuller beat Fabianski to the ball and head into the roof of the net. 1-0 to Stoke.
5 minutes in and another long throw from Delap but this time Fabianski comes out to claim the ball.
12 minutes in and after a slow start Arsenal were starting to settle and werecontrolling the bulk of the possession. However, not looking too dangerous.
15 minutes gone and Walcott laid the ball off to Vela, but a defender managed to clear the ball before the Mexican was able to pull the trigger. It should have been a corner, but the referee gave a goal kick.
20 Another decent move by Arsenal. Vela has time and space out wide on the left, but his cross is far too strong for Fabregas in the middle.
32 minutes in and not much happening in the game. Arsenal were seeing a lot of the ball but Stoke were happy getting men behind the ball and keeping their shape.
35 minute mark and penalty claim for Stoke as Silvestre looked to foul Fuller in the area. Fuller stayed on his feet. Nothing given!
42 minutes in and Arsenal were awarded a free0kick in a dangerous position after a handball. Cesc rolled the ball into the path of Denilson, who took a long-range drive, which may have taken a slight deflection on its way into the back of the net!! All level at 1-1. Game on!
Late pressure from Arsenal after the goal which seemed to have got them going. They won five corners in a row but nothing comes of them.
Half-time score Stoke City 1 Arsenal 1.
Arsenal won an early corner in the second half. Campbell got his head on Febregas’ corner, but his effort floated over.
49 minutes in and Fabianski flapped at another Delap’s throw-in but wins a free-kick to save himself.
2 minutes later and Cesc took a pot at goal with a well-struck effort from distance which was tipped over the bar by Sorensen.
Untidy play from both sides as Arsenal are unable to clear their lines, although Delap’s header was too soft and easily claimed by Fabianski.
57 minutes and Fuller tried his luck from distance which was well over.
63 minutes and nearly an own-goal from Coquelin. His clearance rolls just past Fabianski’s far post! Phew!
Arshavin, Ramsey and Eduardo were brought on after 68 minutes.
79 minutes in and Sidibe broke away down the right and crossed to Fuller who nodded home in the middle. 2-1 to Stoke.
A minute later and could never have been a leveller for Arsenal. Cesc’s free-kick fizzed across the face of Stoke’s goal. Appeals for a corner were turned down.
85 minutes and chance for Ramsey, but he skied his left-footer over the bar from 12-yards out. Disappointing!
1 minute later and game over as Stoke score their third. Etherington crossed and Whitehead was unmarked in the middle to side-foot home from close range. 3-1 to Stoke.
88 minute mark and Tuncay has the ball in the net for a fourth, but was disallowed for handball.
Something extra special was needed for Arsenal to come-back from this and nothing came. Full time score Stoke City 3 Arsenal 1. Full match report here.
We are out of the FA Cup! : ( Disappointing match as I thought we were extremely slow in terms of getting into the game after the equaliser I thought we were beginning to get into our groove but that did not last!
Question for you! Do you think Arsene Wenger was right to start so many “new†players, especially against a premier league side? Thoughts on Sol Campbell’s return as well.
Maybe Wenger could do much better than that. It’s clear that young players like Eastmond can
not play the way Arsene wants! They need experience to do that.
Let it go! I don’t wanna think about it more.It makes me angry !!!
I’m so sad
now we are out of FA Cup & It’s very bad! Stoke played with their premier league squad & WE
played with our young players.
I expected more, at least a 1-1 draw .
Lets look forward to next important games!
COME ON ARSENAL!
COME ON GUNNERS!
COME ON CAPTAIN CESC! <3
at least now we can focus on the champions league and the premier league. personally, i think it was a bad performance but Sol Campbell played well.
So dissapointed that we are out of the FA cup..it was obvious that arsene wegner would rest some of our players because we have four extreamly important games coming up.Sol Campbell’s performance was good.He did well considering the fact that he has not played for a while.Hope that todays loss does not diminsh our belive.
It was clear that Wenger would change and rest some player. Thought that he would rest
Fabregas as Ramsey surprisingly was on the bench. Overall we deserved to crush out.
Some players were not prepared to the physical approach of Stoke. Hopefully we learned
from this game as we have to visit the Britania Stadium for our Premiere League encounter.
Walcott and Vela were not good enough and have to raise their game. We have very tough
games in front of us and I fear that we are not physical prepared for the coming games.