It went from bad to worse in a matter of minutes when Jermaine Pennant was allowed time and space to head towards the Arsenal goal, his drive was deflected off the leg of Johan Djourou and over Wojciech Szczesny into the Arsenal goal. Looking back at the goal and perhaps the keeper could have

Arsenal really need to quit the Jekyll and Hyde impersonations, we really have watched that film far too many times this season. Last weekend the flowers were budding, the sun was shining, I found a crisp twenty pound note floating gently towards me but yesterday the rain thundered down, the wind slapping the cold rain against my face and in all the commotion I lost my wallet filled with the last stash of cash I had tucked away under my bed for erm, a rainy day.

It was one of those afternoon’s at the Britannia stadium where not much went right for us and everything that could go wrong, quite frankly went wrong.

I thought we had started the game well enough, kept the ball well and our football was played at a decent enough pace but in the final third the players lacked that creativity that little bit of imagination around the penalty box.

Stoke defended very well but we still managed to fashion some chances but our players all developed the smash it over the bar syndrome.

Ramsey chipped in Van Persie early on and he fired over the crossbar. Walcott and Koscielny also produced carbon copy moments at other points during the game.

The possession stats had flashed up on screen and we were into the 70’s but we still hadn’t tested their keeper and that was a problem. The only bonus to the possession was that Stoke could not put us under any significant pressure until Arshavin had pushed Pennant by the corner flag and the former Arsenal winger went down easily.

A soft free kick but an even softer goal was scored when Pennants floated cross missed every Arsenal player and all Jones had to do was chest it over the line. If the Arsenal players had closed their eyes and guessed when to jump then surely they couldn’t have done much worse than what actually happened on that set piece.

Van Persie missed his header at the near post whilst Johan Djourou lost his man, an occurrence that has happened far too often in recent weeks.

That statistic about 57% of Arsenal’s goals conceded coming from set pieces continues to ring around Arsenal supporters heads. You look back to games like Tottenham at the Emirates, Wigan away and West Brom at the Hawthorns. The opposition were able to score without any pressure being put on the opposing player. It is little wonder that teams are now happy to sit back and wait for set pieces to come their way.

It went from bad to worse in a matter of minutes when Jermaine Pennant was allowed time and space to head towards the Arsenal goal, his drive was deflected off the leg of Johan Djourou and over Wojciech Szczesny into the Arsenal goal. Looking back at the goal and perhaps the keeper could have done better with the shot but Pennant certainly shouldn’t have been allowed that amount of time to run and shoot.

Arsene changed things at half time adding some extra presence in the final third with both Bendtner and Chamakh while replacing Ramsey and Arshavin. It gave us some extra options in attack but we didn’t have enough drive to make it count. Only Jack Wilshere and Robin Van Persie had any purpose in their play and that has to be the biggest concern about yesterday’s result.

In true Arsenal fashion we managed to snatch a late goal ten minutes from time that may have allowed us to push on for a last gasp equaliser. Van Persie swerved past one defender and unleashed a right footed shot underneath Begovic.

Just as I started to believe that the come back was on and the rest of the game would be played inside the Stoke City penalty area, Stoke scored. Seconds after we had pulled a goal back, the game was over. kamikaze defending from our defenders which allowed Walters to lash in from close range.

Losing that goal was worse than the previous two goals. Having just worked our way back into the game we gave away yet another stupid goal and that angered me.

That was that, Stoke City deserved their victory and Arsene was left to pick up the pieces that his players threw to the floor.

Conclusion

Most of the players just did not turn up and that is disheartening especially against a team like Stoke City with the history of last season.

As has been the case in the last few weeks we had another midfield performance with no ends. Our defence was far too easily penetrated while our attacks lacked any real penetration.

Clearly we are not as perfect as our result against Manchester United last weekend yet not as awful as our display yesterday. The manager was very frank in his post match interview about his players and I think there is little doubt that changes will be forthcoming this summer.

That was simply not good enough a performance for Arsenal FC.

Szczesny (5)
Sagna (6)
Koscielny (6)
Djourou (4)
Gibbs (4.5)
Song (5)
Ramsey (6)
Wilshere (7)
Walcott (5)
Van Persie (6)
Arshavin (5)

Please note that ratings are only my interpretations of the game and that others will have differing opinions