Cancelling Each Other Out: Stoke in Arsenal Stalemate

Many would call it a clash of footballing prowess, but neither side were able to make a case for their respected styles of play today as Stoke and Arsenal played out a bore draw with chances few and far between at the Britannia Stadium.

Despite retaining the vast majority of possession and looking dangerous in the process, Arsenal were once again unable to break through a resolute Stoke defence with villain of the piece Ryan Shawcross producing a great performance to deny Gunners bragging rights in what has become something of a derby fixture this weekend.

Stoke started the better of the two sides with Geoff Cameron looking lively from the first whistle. The American was making his debut and introducing himself in some fashion with a handful of vital interceptions, troubling midfielders Santi Cazorla, Abou Diaby & Mikel Arteta at any given moment. Much has been made of Pulis needing both a ball-winning and creative midfielder and Cameron certainly fits the bill on both accounts if today is anything to go by. The new signing looked comfortable on the ball and his ability shone through as he intercepted the ball over and over again. Crouch was ever present in every Stoke attack with Marc Wilson’s long balls finding his head most of the time whilst Cazorla & Podolski featured heavily at the other end for Arsenal. Cazorla settled into the game well and Cazorla’s presence behind Olivier Giroud was fundamental to how Arsenal attacked. Countless times the ball fell to the Spaniard who had the guile to delicately find a teammate 9 times out of 10. The first real chance of the game fell to Arsenal on 8 minutes when Andy Wilkinson’s slip allowed Podolski the space to shoot, but the defender recovered quickly with a theatrical dive to block the shot (seemingly with his hand). As the game prolonged, the chances didn’t improve and neither side looked potent enough to run away with the game.

The game was reminiscent of the traditional fixture that we’re so used to with Stoke contented by defending vigorously; attempting to break Arsenal down on the counter attack. It was working and Arsenal’s efforts to score were fruitless. It definitely wasn’t a game for the neutrals as Stoke were happy to let Arsenal attack all they liked in a dour game. The second half was much like the first with chances at a premium. Arsenal looked more likely to score but the Stoke defence were resilient with some great performances from Marc Wilson, Andy Wilkinson & Ryan Shawcross. Jermaine Pennant perhaps should have been awarded a soft penalty in the second half, but the referee and I both disagreed.

Neither team really deserved victory nor did either team look like they would score and a point was a pretty fair result at full time. An unfortunate anti-climax to what was billed as a thriller but many positives to take from today. We once again looked defensively supreme and with one additional outlet or flair player, I think we could do very well this season. Certainly the performances of Geoff Cameron, Michael Kightly, Marc Wilson, Ryan Shawcross and Andy Wilkinson will give fans hope that we are close to being a very good side.

The transfer window closes this week and Pulis is looking to ‘freshen things up’ somewhat with some new blood. Personally I take this as a good sign that he is willing to say that he will be looking for a couple more players. The Goran Popov & Tom Huddlestone deals look to be dead, but there is still a slight chance that both players could still join the club on loan. Barring these two loan deals, most fans would like to see the club sign another attacker. I’d quite like somebody with flair, a new outlet to which we can just give the ball to and take it from A to B. Whatever happens on deadline day, we can take positives from our last two games and look forward to a very difficult 6 fixtures starting with a trip to Wigan this weekend.

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