Stoke v Arsenal Match Reaction

[Kano]

Shawcross already had done it before Ramsey. He broke Francis Jeffers ankle three years previously.

[Özim]

What lead? We were never well clear at the top. Since we played City they've got 9 points, we've got 6. It's hardly a charge from them while we've collapsed.

Nevertheless our lead has been eroded away, you can see it happening again we're starting to falter, have we seen this before somewhere?

[Letters]

We never had a lead Not one to crow about. It's been a very topsy turvy season, no-one has ever been well clear of anyone.
We will drop more points, so will our rivals. You can conclude nothing yet.
It's hardly like when Spurs were 10 points clear of us and crowing about it and they collapsed.

[I am invisible]

It wasn't a bad game and considering the line-up we had out there it was a point gained IMO.

We're definitely starting to stutter but with the likes of Ozil and Sanchez due back this weekend and Coq, Wilshere & Welbeck not far off I think our performances will greatly improve.

Onto yesterdays game, I thought Cech was superb, pretty much saved us towards the end, also thought the defence and Flamini played quite well.

Offensively we didn't do a lot, we lacked creativity and weren't very decisive in our build up play.

Chelsea game on Sunday is now massive and it's a must win as we really can't afford to drop anymore points.

Not a great game, but not the worst - enough to keep us top, and that'll do for now. Nice to know we can scrap out a tough point when we need to.

Need to get that winning momentum back pretty sharpish though, if we don't want to get overtaken and left behind - what better way to get started than to give Chelsea a damn good pasting!

Sanchez being back is going to be massive for us, and I think we've managed Özil's fitness really well over the Christmas period, so hopefully those two will be firing on all cylinders for the run-in. Rosicky and Mo should be available straight away, and will add some fresh legs to a tired-looking midfield, and I've heard Coquelin, Wilshere and Welbeck are all back in training ahead of schedule, so they should be ready for selection in a couple of weeks. Not sure how Santi is doing, so let's hope that's enough to see us through to May...

[Özim]

We never had a lead Not one to crow about. It's been a very topsy turvy season, no-one has ever been well clear of anyone.
We will drop more points, so will our rivals. You can conclude nothing yet.
It's hardly like when Spurs were 10 points clear of us and crowing about it and they collapsed.

We had a comfortable lead over Man City at one stage, that's gone now and we're getting to the stage where we're going to struggle as we always do this time of the year when the pressure really kicks in, 4 points dropped in two games will do nothing for confidence that's for sure.

First half of the season has been a dreadful half of season, teams have been pretty average so far, if it continues (I doubt it will) then it will have been a pretty poor quality season, but I think we'll probably see Man City improve, there's usually one team that kicks on in the 2nd half of the season and you've got to fancy them with the players they have.

[Letters]

We have never had more than a 4 point gap over City.
That 4 point gap was opened up when we played them and then immediately wiped out after the Boxing Day debacle, then the gap was 1 points, as it is now...
City did once have a 5 point gap over us.

As for City improving, maybe. But we've got Sanchez and maybe Carzola to come back. Ozil didn't play yesterday.
There's definitely scope for us to improve too as some of those players return, and we've got a pretty good run-in.

[Kano]

In the past 6 matches since we beat Man City, both teams have picked up 11 points.

[Letters]

In the past 6 matches since we beat Man City, both teams have picked up 11 points.

Stop confusing the issue by using facts

[Letters]

The first time we went ahead of them was after 16 games when we went a point ahead of them, just like we are now.
#usingfactsischeating

[Niall_Quinn]

I was listening to some of their fans calling into 606 yesterday, and it's amazing how to this day they still seem determined to miss the point. It was never a question of whether Shawcross intended to break Ramsey's leg or not, as most of them seem to think - whilst I have no doubt that he meant to go in heavy and hard, I don't think for one second that he actually wanted to break anyone's leg. No, the issue was, and still is, that it was the inevitable outcome of a situation that had been allowed to develop in this country, where it had become acceptable practice (not to mention highly amusing) to kick the crap out of our players every week, and watch the 'Arsenal cry-babies' whine about it. How many times over the years did we hear phrases like "We know how you've got to play against Arsenal..." and "Arsenal don't like it wen you kick them..." etc? How many times did we have to sit through the sneering old-boys club on MOTD laughing about it, and spouting tired, antiquated lines from 30 years ago about how it's a man's game? Once it had become that socially acceptable, is it any wonder that refs started turning a blind eye to it?

For Stoke and their fans, I can understand that they maybe see it as a one-off freak incident - one of those unfortunate things that just happen. For us though, it was 38 games a season, every season, that we had to put up with that kind of assault, and it was quite literally a matter of when, not if, it happened again. After watching it happy to Diaby, and then Eduardo, and then Ramsey in consecutive seasons, I can totally understand why Wenger was so angry about it, and why he wouldn't accept any apologies - too little, far, far, far too late. Perhaps Stoke and their fans can count themselves unlucky in that it was them who broke the camel's back, and not one of the other 18 teams in the league who regularly riled their players up to go out and play the same way, but there you go... it was them, and they need to take responsibility for it, instead of blaming everyone under the sun except themselves, including the victim! Seriously, anyone who genuinely believes that Ramsey broke his own leg on a blade of grass, and that poor, emotionally-fragile Ryan Shawcross is the real victim because he had his feelings hurt, really needs to have a word with themselves...

tbf, prior to us going a bit pansy (which we did), we were the ones kicking the crap out of the opposition. Vieira, Keown, Bould, Adams, Lauren, even Bergie was a bit of a bastard when he needed to be. That was what the game was like and we played it as well as any. The "don't like it up 'em" shit went to full cry when we switched from being the perps to the victims. Barca, who we were trying to copy, can handle it because all their players are drilled to hit the deck as soon as they are touched. Our lot don't.