Arsenal Out Of The FA Cup!!
Stoke had not beaten Arsenal in the FA Cup in seven previous meetings going into this match, but they made sure that the Gunners joined Manchester United and Liverpool on the list of big Premier League scalps in this season's competition.
Campbell was making his first appearance for the Gunners since the 2006 Champions League final, but he couldn't stop his side falling behind after just 70 seconds.
Arsenal failed to deal with Rory Delap's first long throw of the match and Ricardo Fuller stooped low to head past the hesitant Lukasz Fabianski to put the Potters ahead.
Stoke never allowed an Arsenal side featuring several fringe players to settle, with young makeshift right-back Francis Coquelin enduring a torrid time in the first-half.
Fuller had a decent case for a penalty 10 minutes before half time when Mikael Silvestre slid in with a challenge on him but failed to get a touch on the ball. The strong Jamaica international stumbled but managed to stay on his, and referee Martin Atkinson elected not to give the spot-kick.
Arsenal were fortunate to find themselves level three minutes before the break when Atkinson awarded a free-kick when Dean Whitehead unintentionally handballed on the edge of the box. Cesc Fabregas shaped up to shoot, but instead played a square pass for Denilson to strike, and the Brazilian's shot took a slight deflection off Whitehead as he dived in to block it and the ball hit the bottom corner with Thomas Sorensen rooted to the spot.
Arsenal were much improved after the break, but manager Arsene Wenger made wholesale changes midway through the second half in a bid to settle the tie and avoid a replay with a tough run of Premier League fixtures on the horizon.
Andrei Arshavin, Aaron Ramsey and Eduardo all came on, but their introductions failed to have the same impact that those of Samir Nasri and Abou Diaby had made in the previous round against West Ham.
Instead it was Stoke who upped their games and, led by a determined Matthew Etherington, they went all-out for the win.
Tony Pulis's side retook the lead on 78 minutes when Mamady Sidibe charged down the left wing and curled in an inviting cross for Fuller to out-jump Campbell and head his sixth goal of the season.
Whitehead put the disappointment of his unfortunate involvement in Arsenal's goal behind him late on when Etherington had plenty of space to run into and he find the midfielder at the far post for a simple tap-in.
The result could have been even worse for Wenger's men when moments later substitute Tuncay Sanli had the ball in the back of the net again, only for the Turkish striker to be penalised for a handball in the build-up.
Thanks to Tony Mabert |
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Comments
lets not lose perspective. we are still in a very strong position in the league and champions league and this season i don't mind the gamble wenger made in the FA cup.
last season when wenger left out arshavin against chelsea i was angry because we didn't have much chance in the other competitions. but this season its different. especially with the upcoming fixtures.
Van Persie is injured until the end of the season. Walcott can’t cope at the moment. Eduardo has lost his confidence. Bendtner is back next week but will take time to play again properly. BUY BUY BUY !!!!
bendtner will need time to recover but a new forward will need even more time to adjust to the premier league maybe about half a season or longer. unless we bought messi or henry or ibrahimovic or, i don't know, lets just get pele back.
the point is the fans can cry buy buy buy but who are we going to buy who is better than the players we have for an amount of money that isn't going to bankrupt us. i'll let wenger and his scouts decide because youtube doesn't tell the whole story. instead lets get behind the players we have because its not up to us to decide whether we buy or not.
i'm trying to look on the bright side so i'm not going to mention certain defender, wingers, midfielder, fullback. but none of these i'm referring to are first choice so its ok.
Come on egypt. bring on villa and the return of the first team.
Almunia
Sagna
Clichy
Vermaelen
Gallas
Diaby
Song
Fabregas
Nasri
Arshavin
Van Persie
Bench
Fabianski
Eduardo
Gibbs
Eboue
Rosicky
Bendtner
Ramsey
Then the rest
Sylvestre
Campbell
Traore
Denilson
Wilshere
Vela
Walcott
Djourou
Merida
Then all the younger players, Eastmod, JET, Coquelin etc etc.
So if you see the team we had out today, you can see we are missing alot of players at the same time.
So please stop talking crap.
Wenger's hand was forced with the side he stuck out. There's no denying the importance of the next four games. Could well shape or break our season. Just look at the injuries we have. Le boss knew the sort of bruising encounter we could expect today. It's so important that we have a fresh side for the trip to villa park.
I was at the game on wednesday and the positivity around the arsenal faithful was awesome. I hope this result won't affect the confidence in the side.
Big games coming up. Big players coming back. Top players (Eduardo, Rosicky...) getting better by the game. We've got a lot to be positive about. Let's get behind the team and focus on three vital ponts mid-week!!
And we were only undone right at the end when sol was obviously very tired and silvestre was injured. a mid-table premiership team should be able to beat our reserves. not that i'm not upset with the result but we shouldn't get disheartened. also on a better pitch this reserve side probably would have won so it says something for the squads depth that with so many players out injured and so many players rested that we could compete with a decent premierleague team.
But I see the bigger picture. We are right in the heart of the title battle. We also have a favourable draw in the European Cup. So we lost today. Stoke will beat alot of teams with their anti-football. I don't want AW to invest in players who would only be useful for games like these. Would much rather we continue to play football and look to win matches this way.
Players can't be expected to come in for one game, against a full strength PL side and be at their best for 90 minutes.
Sol played well, Coquelin, after a shaky start, did some good things. Eastmond looked very composed in the main and JET battled well also.
My biggest concern today was Theo. He looks way off the pace and this may be due to playing only a few minutes this season, but he gave nothing today and was very poor. Let's hope he improves soon.
i know it was pre-season but in the barnet game i thought coquelin was reallly good playing in central midfield so maybe he was shaky at the start because this isn't his natural position. the website lists him as a midfielder so its no wonder he looked nervous.
If our injury situation was not so bad, Vela and Theo would be coming off the bench for 30 minutes in games and making an impact and building up their confidence. Playing from the start is proving tough for them.
On Coquelin, it is quite funny, last season he was holding in midfield and Eastmond was a full back. They seem to have swapped.
Eboue was suspended for Ivory Coast. He should have flown back for the game.!!!
http://www.footballfancast.com/football-blogs/english-football-arsenal-champions?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ffc_Premiership_Blogs+%28FFC_Premiership_Blogs%29
Cos if in arsene's word's bentdners return is the key we are f****d, how can he seriously think that this fella is any where near a good striker.
I agree that arsene will do things for the good of the team, and I would back him on 95% of it, but he has an achillies heel, for want of better phrase, sometimes you need to bite the bullet and sign quality rather than ones for the future.
I hope we are not heading for yet another tits up by march season.
Hugo Lloris, Rene Adler, Manuel Neuer, Igor Akinfeev ... we can only dream ...
as you say we can only dream of these goalkeepers because they will all be overpriced and very expensive because there just aren't that many top class goalkeepers.
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