Tag Archives: Stoke City

Sead Kolašinac Signing, Alexis Sanchez Staying, Rob Holding & Stupid Stoke Fans

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Sead Kolašinac Signing

It looks like a deal has now been done for Sead Kolašinac according to reports in Germany.
Reports are he has already passed a medical and a 5 year deal has been signed.

Once the deal is announced, people will begin working out how he will fit into the team.

If we return to 4 at the back next season, he will be left back. If we go to 3 at the back, I would not surprised if he plays on the left hand side of the 3.

At 6ft and left footed, he could be a natural fit on that left hand side of the defence – arguably our weakest side and one where we do not currently have a natural fit.

Of course, some will be moaning that we have just signed a player on a free transfer. That Wenger is doing it on the cheap again. Remember what I said above about Holding? Ignore the price, look at the player.

Kolašinac is on the 3 man short list for the Bundesliga team of the season. Those who watch German football regularly have him as a shoe in at left back for the team of the season.

So Arsenal are signing the best left back in the Bundesliga for free. Great business.

Alexis Sanchez Staying

If you need any signs that Alexis Sanchez wants to stay at Arsenal, watch his celebration after his goal against Stoke City.

Clearly showing he loves Arsenal hitting the badge, then indicating he wants to stay here.

Either he is planning to renew his contract, or wants to play for Stoke City next year.

Good news for Arsenal.

Rob Holding

I have spoken before about over hyping a player after just a handful of games. The memory of Calum Chambers demise in still a recent one.

Rob Holding is a player.

Saturday he showed he has it all to become a top centre back. He was aggressive in the challenge, both on the floor and areal. Clearly happy to put in a hard challenge as Marko Arnautović.

https://twitter.com/ap__76/status/863721962417397760

This type of controlled aggression is something we have missed for a decade plus. When was the last time an opponent went home in a sling after a challenge from one of our players?

Not only is Holding a hard defender, but he can also pass and play.

He was calm in possession, and showed a little drop of the shoulder here and there to create space for him.

If his recent performances were done by a certain Manchester City player who cost a hell of a lot of money, the press would be going mad. But as he cost just £1m from Bolton, his performances are going under the radar.

Wenger was right earlier in the season when he apologised that Rob Holding did not cost £45m. It shows it is not about the cost of a player but about his ability.

And Rob Holding clearly has the ability.

I also look forward to Chambers returning next season. In the current formation, he is ideally suited to play on the right side of a back 3.

 

Stupid Stoke City Fans

“We want you to stay, we want you to stay, Arsene Wenger, we won’t you to stay”. 

Odd bunch the Stoke fans are. From booing Aaron Ramsey to mocking a manager who has won more than their entire club to shagging their own sisters, they really are an inbred bunch of imbeciles.

On Saturday they sang about wanting Arsene Wenger to stay at Arsenal. This season they have lost 3-1 & 4-1 to Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal team.

For all the media luvies painting Stoke as Arsenal’s boogie team, Stoke’s recent record against The Gunners reads:

P 5 W 0 D 1 L 4 F 2 A 12

So no wins in their last 5 games. And just 2 wins in 12 games.

Infact, since 2005, Stoke have beaten Arsenal just 5 times in 20 games. Great record guys.
Maybe I am actually misreading the chants. What they actually want is for Wenger to say in Stoke and manager them.

Mark Hughes is set to return Stoke’s lowest points total since their return to the Premier League and the team is sleep walking to their worst league position since coming up. With just 1 win in 10, they are finishing the season in relegation form. That is always a bad sign for next season.

Rather than mock Arsene Wenger, maybe they should look closer to home. It is not as rosy as Mark Hughes’ PR team makes out.

Keenos

Cheating Doesn’t Pay for Stoke City

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They call themselves a rugby team and sing Swing Low. Whilst Stoke City are not the physical side they were under Tony Pullis, they still have a nasty side with Mark Hughes. And for once, their blatant cheating did not pay.

Timewasting at every opportunity, questions have to be asked of the referee as to why goal keeper Lee Grant was not book in the first half for taking over 30 seconds to take a free kick. Fans pay a lot of money to watch a football match. Not to watch a goal keeper take a sip of his drink, dry his hands, kick his boots on the post, change where he is taking the goal kick from and then wait a few more seconds before kicking it.

Stoke City clearly went out with a game plan. To waste as much time as possible. And it ended up catching up with them.

A couple of times during the game Stoke City players went down, crying wolf, pretending to be injured in an attempt to slow the game down and take the intensity out. To waste time.

2 minutes into the second half, they were at it again. Erik Pieters going down holding his hamstring, his back, and his head. He could not decide which one he had hurt. 1 minute of treatment on the pitch in an attempt to get time and intensity taken out of the game.

And then Arsenal got their revenge. With Pieters off the pitch, having had to walk from behind the goal to the half way line to come on, Mesut Ozil drifted in unmarked and unfollowed to lob the keeper with a header. At this point Pieters was barely in his own half. Had he not faked injury, he would have been on the pitch and likely the man to follow Ozil back in.

The fact that Pieters remained on the pitch for the entire game showed how little he was injured. He was not. And his cheating ended up costing his side a goal. 2-1 Arsenal.

Arsenal’s third goal made history.

At no point in the history of the game have a side surrounded the referee due to him NOT giving a free kick. And that is exactly what Stoke City did.

Alexis Sanchez was crudely bought down on the edge of the area, following up was serial offender Charlie Adam who stamped on the Chilean. As Stoke City players stopped waiting for a free kick, Alex Iwobi appeared clear in the box slotting it past Lee Grant, whilst Lee Mason waved play on.czvzez2wqaapdvaWith Arsenal players celebrating the goal that would take the club top of the table, Stoke City plays surrounded the referee. Demanding to know why he waved play on. Why he did not give a free kick AGAINST them. It was hilarious to watch unfold.

Stoke had attempted to time waste, foul and kick Arsenal off the pitch. And it was a foul which was not giving that was their undoing.

Back in 2007, Cesc Fabregas approached Mark Hughes at the end of a drab 0-0 draw against Blackburn. Hughes takes over the story: “When we shook hands at the end, the young man asked me a question which I thought was disrespectful. He asked me if I had played for Barcelona and when I said yes, he shook his head as if in disbelief. Then he said, ‘Well, that wasn’t Barcelona football’.”

And he is the same again at Stoke. Their cheat at all costs football ended up costing them.

Karma.

Keenos

Stoke City, Songs, Stoppers & Shagging

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Stoke City

A bit like Liverpool, you are left wondering, was it two points dropped, or one point gained?

Away to Stoke City  is never an easy game. In the 9 games since Stoke got promoted to the Premier League, Arsenal have won just once at the Britannia. Losing 5. So far this season, Stoke have beaten Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United at home.

So a 0-0 draw, when we were without Sanchez, Ozil, Cazorla, Welbeck, Wilshere & Coquelin, in the freezing cold, is not a bad result.

Where it is a bad result is on the back of a draw at Liverpool.

That now puts us without a win in 2 games. With a game at home to Chelsea next up, that could easily become no win in 3. In a game where momentum and winning runs is so important, no wins in 3 would be presented as a bit of a mini-crisis, a dip in form.

Despite that, it is a hard run. Draws away to Liverpool, away to Stoke City, and (potentially) at home to Chelsea are, on their own, decent results. Good points earnt. But put together in consecutive games will change the press narrative.

Look at it another way, our title challengers this season are Manchester City.

They have so far played Stoke City and Liverpool once. They have two defeats. 0 points. We have played both sides twice. 1 win, 3 draws. 5 points. So even if Manchester City win both their remaining games against Liverpool & Stoke, it is only a net gain of 1 points over us. Not too bad when you think who disappointed we might feel over the last two results.

The other positive is that it is one less away game left this season. We not have just 7 away games remaining. Manchester City have 9.

The importance of this can be seen in the home and away league tables this season:Homeaway

Our home and away form has been excellent. Man City’s away form has been poor. The way games fall could be crucial to the title run in.

Songs

There has been a lot of discussions about songs since the Stoke game.

In the first case, we have Stoke City. Once again, they booed Aaron Ramsey’s name, sung songs about him, cheered Ryan Shawcross, and the sponsors once again named Shawcross as Man of the Match.

I have previously given my opinion on this ‘abuse’ and do not have a problem with it.

The only people it embarrasses are Stoke fans.Stoke

Stoke fans actually show themselves up as being a bit of a joke. Firstly trying to start off “Stand up if you hate Arsenal” – it was the only time other than Delilah that there fans actually made any half decent noise. Then way the way they have responded to Arsenal fan’s having a go at them for abusing Ramsey.

They say Arsenal fans are being oversensitive with the issue. That we are being pansies. Yet the reason they say they abuse Ramsey is because he did not accept Shawcross’s apology. His hand shake. Did not respond to his text.

How sensitive do you want to be? It is the footballing equivalent of “I’m not your friend anymore”. Stoke fans need to man up. Admit they abuse Ramsey because they have deep rooted anger issues. Not because Ramsey refused to accept an apology from a player who nearly ended his career.

And if the later is the real reason for the abuse, it is the Stoke fans who need to be a little bit less sensitive over the issue.

The second part of ‘song gate´ is the supposed stealing of a West Ham song which fans sang about Mesut Ozil. I am not going to go into the debate too much, but both sides of the argument can be found quite easily on Twitter. Will be interested to here what side of the argument you all fall down on.

Should we only be coming up with our own, unique songs? Or is it a case of every song in football is stolen from someone else? Whether it be another Premier League side, a lower league side, or Europe?

Stoppers

Back to the Stoke City game, it was a drab 0-0 draw, lit up by the performance of the two goal keepers.

Petr Cech is a world class keeper. It makes me wonder how many more trophies would we have won had we been able to sign him back in 2002 when his work permit was rejected.

At the other end, it Jack Butland properly impressed me. A few have dug out Olivier Giroud for 2 misses (the usual suspects) but it was two brilliant saves to stop him.

Here is a kid who is getting better and better. Still just 22 (23 in March – does that make him 23 now? I get confused). Everyone has known about his talent for years. Anyone who has read the brilliant Nowhere Men would have been well aware of his talent, and what scouts up and down the country thought of him.

Moving to a smaller side like Stoke was good for his career, as it mean game time. But he surely can not be too far from a move to a bigger club. If De Gea leaves Manchester United, I can see him going there, or if Liverpool look for an upgrade on Mignolet, that is another option.

Could Arsenal perhaps to a deal for him similar to what Stoke did when signing him from Birmingham? Pay upfront for Butland now, but he does not join the club for 2 or 3 years? By that time Cech will be 36, Butland 25 and probably England’s number one. It would be an investment worth doing.

Shagging

There was no shagging this weekend. Although I am sure somewhere in Stoke, someone shagged their sister.

Keenos