We outfought Stoke?!

Afternoon Gooners, and welcome to the first post on Dennis Blogkamp, here's hoping it will be the first of many!

Now straight down to business, and of course the Stoke game yesterday is till fresh in the mind. Whilst it was hardly a convincing win or a particularly fluid performance it was nevertheless reassuring from my point of view. We kept a clean sheet against an admittedly unambitious and toothless Stoke side, we fought them toe-to-toe physically from first whistle to last, and we managed to win ugly having created enough chances to be justified in taking the 3 points. The way our new boy Nacho Monreal, in a tough first game in the Premier League, out-Stoked Walters, leaving him with a bandaged head, was particularly gratifying.

Our rivalry with Stoke is an interesting one, because in the space of about 4 years it has become one of the most heated games in the league. Not because of location or the relative achievement of the two sides, simply because of the two completely polarised footballing ideologies of Wenger and the goblin Pulis. Their style of play is loosely based on the orcs' attack on Minas Tirith in Lord of The Rings. They are basically a team of 10 inbreds led by the goblin in a baseball cap and his massive shin-shattering sidekick Shawcross, with a mediocre winger to take all their conversions. They even bought some American hillbilly to take their line-outs now Delap has fucked off.

They therefore see Arsenal as the anti-Christ, if they even know of the existence of Christianity. And yesterday was evidence of that, as Shawcross decided to try and collect another Arsenal scalp by lunging at Koscielny, a definite red card, but Shawcross was let off the referee with only a yellow. Owen however went against the Stoke norm with a phenomenally girly slap aimed at Arteta, which was also ignored. Nevertheless Arsenal fought well and despite some excellent saves from Begovic Podolski's free-kick which took a deflection off the hillbilly was enough.

Individually it was hard to pick out any outstanding performances, although Arteta was classy on his return from injury, even if Ramsey being dropped was harsh on the Welshman, whilst Theo dealt with Stoke's physicality very well, repeatedly holding off an then roasting the degenerate Wilkinson down the outside. Giroud was a good focal point but he needs to make sure he maintains his selfish streak - there was one particular moment when he opted to knock it down rather than go for goal when free at the back post, and a better decision could have made it a more comfortable victory. Oxlade-Chamberlain meanwhile was wasteful and it seems that his progress has stagnated this season - worrying given that he has had more opportunities to play this campaign. Monreal was solid but on this occasion unadventurous, as expected from a new boy playing his first game in England. Overall, a mostly promising performance and result.

Until Wednesday.

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