Stoke City at Arsenal

Stoke City at Arsenal

Oct. 23, 2011

Premier League Match

Arsenal has another must win game against the weaker Stoke. Win and its another 3 points. Even this early on its hard to think that Arsenal can overtake the 2 Manchesters, however if they start winning the early easy games now it could mean a lot in terms of getting in the top 4 and earning the Champions League seat next season. 

Arsene Wenger has finally given Van Persie a much needed rest, though you can’t fault Wenger for not wanting him to sit as he has exploded in his last 10 games. Deciding to play Chamakh in his stead, it will be interesting to see how he has only played in one game this year. Wenger starts with Chamakh as the striker with Walcott and Gervinho surrounding him in the ever fluid forward position. Arsenal needs a striker like Chamakh, just much much better. He is tall, but unconvincing with many of his headers. He doesn’t seem to have much touch either. He does seem very good as getting offside. With that said, Arsenal still needs a striker in mold of Chamakh. They have also tried with Bendtner, the tall Dane, but like Chamakh, he was never consistent. Van Persie is great, but he is great at so many things that it seems like he should be in more of the forward role with someone at the striker position. 

Chamakh looked off to start. He had a few decent chances, but couldn’t deliver. He had a header in the 12th minute that could have been a goal, but was poorly hit. From ten yards out it weakly bounced to the left of the net. Arsenal didn’t really need him though. From the beginning Arteta and Ramsey did a great job of ball retention as they cycled the ball around from defense to forwards, slowing pushing up, but never giving up real possession. 

After dominating possession and chances in the first 25 minutes, Gervinho finally broke through with a strike from 15 yards out. Gervinho’s strike was not short of confidence, but the best part of the play was the assist that was lofted beautifully over 3 defenders from 5 yards away by Ramsey. After finally breaking through, Arsenal then proceeded to play like they could beat them with one foot. In the 33rd minute Stoke received a controversial penalty kick that they converted. The real injustice was not the call, but the defense that followed. A tough bounce led to a Stoke forward receiving it from 20 yards away, but he was just watched as he pushed the ball to 5 yards off the right post and then crossed unchallenged to the middle of several Stoke players. The ball was bounced around, but Crouch ended nailing it in. The next few chances would also be Stoke’s, but it would turn again. 

Arsenal controlled the last 15 minutes of the game as well, as constant pressure finally led to another Chamakh chance off a nice cross from Gervinho, but again Chamakh seemed to misjudge the ball and missed it. The first half ended with the score tied, but with Arsenal dominating all but 5 minutes. Hopefully going forward they can take advantage of their dominance by striking home a few more goals. It would be nice to rest Van Persie for the game but they would need to get a few more goals before the pressure mounts. 

2ND HALF

Arsenal came out of the first half, again inspired. They held possession. Mostly with Arteta trying to find some rhythm feeding his forwards and other midfielders making runs. Gervinho had a few nice runs, but nothing came to be. Koscielny had a great chance, after several bounces a corner landed in front of him 5 yards from goal, but he was facing away from net and he got fancy and failed a bicycle kick. However, that was by far the closest they came in the next 15 minutes. 

By minute 65 Arsene Wenger could wait no longer. He began to warm up Van Persie, who came on in the 67 minute and was dynamic from the get go. His first touch he dribbled in front of a defender for 30 seconds before his cross was just missed by a Koscielny header. 

It took less than 5 minutes for Van Persie to score. He received a feed from Gervinho right in front of the keeper, and snuck it in the bottom right corner. It was a nice feed from Gervinho, but it really highlighted the difference between someone like Van Persie and someone like Chamakh. Van Persie called for the ball, immediately went towards Gervinho, cutting in front of a defender. The kick itself was solid, but his positioning was awesome. Another example of this was again in the 82nd minute, as Gervinho again crossed to Van Persie in front. Again Van Persie pushed through defenders, gaining position enough to get that all in important first foot on the ball. 

The fact is Gervinho had a good total game, but a great 2nd half. This was no coincidence. Obviously when Van Persie came in, but also with Arshavin a minute later, Arsenal was just a different team. It was Arshavin’s run down defense and feed that led to Gervinho’s second cross to Van Persie. The little Russian played a very productive 20 minutes. However, Chamakh can just not do what those guys can do. The young Turk has 3 inches and 15 lbs on Van Persie, but it was the Dutchman fighting through defenders at will.

Clearly it is hard to bench Van Persie at any time, until he loses some of his fire.