Source: Telegraph
Arsenal 2 Stoke City 0: match report
Crisis averted, but the questions at Arsenal do persist. True, an ultimately impressive 2-0 victory over Stoke City halted a run of consecutive league defeats, yet Arsene Wenger's team are still struggling to overcome the loss of Robin van Persie and could only really relax when Aaron Ramsey scored their second in the 79th minute. [LNB]In an attempt to solve the sudden dearth of goals that had coincided with Van Persie's injury, Wenger gave Andrei Arshavin his chance to prove that he can be the answer in the problem central position. [LNB] Related ArticlesPremier League tablePremier League actionTelegraph player raterPremier League fixturesSport on televisionWith such a lack of height throughout the team following injuries to Nicklas Bendtner and Abou Diaby, as well as Van Persie, it meant that Arsenal were more reliant than ever on some wonderfully intricate passing to break down the opposition. Cesc Fabregas duly took just three minutes to slice open the [LNB]Stoke defence for Arshavin but the Russian, whose control is usually so deadly, took an uncharacteristically heavy first touch to allow Thomas Sorensen to smother the danger. [LNB]Arsenal, who had not scored in the Premier League since Van Persie's injury two weeks ago, were further profligate later in the first-half. [LNB]Arshavin had rode one tackle as he jinxed his way into the penalty are before being upended by a clumsy Rory Delap tackle. Referee Mark Clattenburg immediately pointed to the penalty spot but Fabregas's rather tame effort was saved comfortably by Sorensen. [LNB]Arshavin, though, finally did make Arsenal's dominance count on 26 minutes when he exchanged passes with Fabregas and then adjusted his feet brilliantly to shoot into the bottom corner. [LNB]The lead should have been further extended before half-time but Arsenal were denied in comical fashion when Fabregas's goalbound shot was inadvertently cleared off the Stoke goal-line by his team-mate Emmanuel Eboue. [LNB]Despite the misfortunate, Eboue was generously applauded by the Arsenal supporters and he partially made amends with a cute through-ball for Arshavin, whose shot was parried to safety by Sorensen. [LNB]Arshavin then had a shot deflected off Abdoulaye Faye and onto the crossbar. The longer Arsenal failed to extend their lead, the greater the sense of anxiety inside the Emirates. [LNB]Stoke were offering only a sporadic threat, although when they did venture into the Arsenal half Delap's long throws were predictably dangerous, with Manuel Almunia unconvincing in his efforts to deal with the aerial bombardment. [LNB]He failed on several occasions to cleanly deal with Delap's delivery but Arsenal were always able to scramble the ball to safety and found themselves untroubled from open play. [LNB]Their general superiority was finally confirmed in the closing moments when Ramsey drifted into space inside the Stoke penalty and calmly directed his shot beyond Sorensen. [LNB]
