Cesc Fabregas was supposed to take his place on the bench alongside the other first team players but Jack Wilshere pulled out at the last moment

Match Review – Stoke City 3 Arsenal 1 – FA Cup

After Wednesday evening, Gooners around the country were singing from the roof tops, top of the league, top goal scorers and looking confident for the second half of the season. Skip a few days and many are up in arms about our FA Cup defeat at Stoke City.

The unpredictable emotions of a football fan I guess.

Almost a whole team unavailable due to injuries and the ACN, a difficult upcoming fixture list and you can see that Wenger had little option but to play the selection of youth and reserve players.

I need not go into the in’s and out’s of the game as the hour and a half sleep last night is not enough to fuel me correctly to write anything with any depth.

I felt sorry for Francis Coquelin in the early stages, his first mistake had stayed with him, along with the jeers from the home supporters it made a difficult first FA Cup start for the youngster. He is a player I like very much and I am sure he will become a squad regular in the matter of years.

Any fears of Campbell cutting it at this level will have been somewhat eased after the big center back rolled back the years. He looked powerful and sharp, especially in the first half. Unsurprisingly he tired in the second half. Should any of Gallas or Vermaelen miss out due to injury or fatigue then I shall feel pretty content with Sol in our defence especially alongside our power players like Alex Song and Abou Diaby.

Cesc Fabregas was supposed to take his place on the bench alongside the other first team players but Jack Wilshere pulled out at the last moment. Cesc was once again the best player on the pitch. At the heart of every Arsenal move despite playing on an unkind surface.

I mentioned sometime back that calls for Fabianski to rescue the day may be wishful thinking. My thinking was that if Fabianski does not manage to step up to the required level then Wenger will be in a rather awaked position. Fabianski is brave shot stopper who isn’t afraid to come for crosses but his decision making still needs work and at his age he has plenty of time to learn. He was exposed in the first 70 seconds by the Rory Delap throw and Fuller beat Fabianski.

I couldn’t believe that Stoke City were actually playing for throw in’s, quite incredible. Delap would rather hang around by the throw line than get past his man and cross the ball. It is quite amazing how Delap gets special throw in privileges. Since when do you get a towel to wipe and dry the ball every couple of minutes?

Arsene’s triple change didn’t pay off. He made a double change at West Ham that worked to perfection. This time it wasn’t to be.

I would gladly take a win in the league fixture over the game yesterday.