Stoke 3-1 Arsenal – 24/01/10 – (FA Cup 4th Round) 25 January, 2010

What an awful result that is, and it was a performance to match yesterday. I was upset with how we played and we never looked like we deserved anything else but the loss. I can take it when we play well and lose but yesterday just wasn’t one of those days

We had to field a weakened side. The defence included a re-debut for Campbell who was partnered by Silvestre and flanked by Coquelin and Traore. It was a very make-shift back four and it showed, touch wood we never get into an injury situation like that. Sol had a decent game though, Silvestre was just Silvestre and the two full backs looked out of the game and clumsy. You can let Coquelin off but there’s no excuse now for Traore.

Cesc started in midfield, which was a signal of intent from Wenger. Whether or not his inclusion came about due to an illness to Wilshere we will never know but showed we did want to win this game. He was partnered by Denilson, or should I say Meh-nilson who put in another lacklustre performance.

Up front we played Walcott and Vela with Emmanuel-Thomas as the main striker; he did alright considering it’s not his normal position but his touch was poor. Vela tried but couldn’t make a stamp on the game and Theo did not have a good game. He was totally and utterly anonymous and South Africa is looking a long way away.

In goal we had the cup ‘keeper, Fabianski. A lot of Gooners have been calling for him to take over in the Premier League but he showed just why he’s not yesterday. He had a poor game. I like how Gareth Southgate put it, “He’s like a box of chocolates, Fabianski. You never know what you’re gonna get.” And yesterday we got that dirty coffee liquor one that no new chocolate can take the taste away. Fucking hate coffee chocolate.

Fabianski set the story for today with a cock up inside 70 seconds leading to the home side’s opener. Of course, it was a Delap throw in, Fabianski saw it, got in position and waited for the ball to fall nicely into his chest. What the hell was he thinking?! He needs to get forward, jump and catch the ball – of course there’s going to be someone coming in to attack the ball.

That man was Fuller and we found ourselves behind very early on.

So I guess we’re gonna have to stick with Almunia for the time being. Today’s announcement that Vito Mannone has signed a new long-term deal doesn’t exactly calm my fears either. Alright he did well earlier in the season but he’s one for the future, as is Fabianski. We need a new ‘keeper.

We got a vital equaliser just before half time. You could argue that we didn’t deserve it given the way the half had gone but we’d finally started to play a bit of football and our short spell of pressure produced a goal. We won a free kick right on the corner of the box, Fabregas stepped up to whip it in but squared it to Denilson who stuck it low towards goal. It took a couple of deflections on the way through but the general direction of the ball didn’t change much and it was 1-1.

Right game on, surely? We could be happy with being level at the break, now we needed to build on that in the second half and go for the win.

However Stoke continued to be the better side and although we had most of the ball and the more dangerous attacks, Stoke were more frequently causing us problems and looked the more likely to score.

With 68 minutes gone Wenger made the ‘we-can’t-be having-a-replay’ move and brought on Arshavin, Ramsey and Eduardo, replacing Walcott, Emmanuel-Thomas and Coquelin.

The three didn’t have much of an impact though, in fact they all has pretty a quiet 20-odd minutes.

It was Stoke who would take the headlines in these vital final stages. They re-took the lead ten minutes after those subs. Traore allowed Sidibe to get down the left with ease who then whipped in a perfect cross for Fuller who made it 2-1 to Stoke. A great but simple goal by the home side made all the easier by our shit defending.

From here the game was only ever going to end 2-2 or 3-1. I was certain we were going to give it our all and run the risk of Stoke catching us on the break. What annoys me though is that their third came from when we had men behind the ball. We were caught in possession and failed to clear the danger, Whitehead was put through and sent Stoke through to the 5th round.

We were spared embarrassment when Tuncay’s 4th was ruled out but it wouldn’t have been an unfair reflection on our performance.

Apart from Cesc who did everything he could to single-handily win the game we were a whole box of shitty coffee chocolates.

Now we can focus our attention to the league though and this result in time may become a blessing in disguise. These next four games will shape our season, I’m excited. And so should the players, they may even get a holiday out of it.

Thanks for reading, speak to you tomorrow.