Written by Mean Lean on Monday, 24 October 2011 12:27

I could get used to this consecutive winning lark, it makes for far more enjoyable weekends. This is the first time since February that we have managed to string two victories together in the Premier League which is utter madness when you consider that we were probably the best team in the country before the Carling cup final.

During that awful post February run of results we fell feebly at the hands of Stoke at the Britannia stadium some of that was put right yesterday afternoon.

Robin van Persie's drop to the bench caused somewhat of a stir amongst Gooners especially given that the midweek game against Bolton in the Carling cup will be a platform for youth and fringe players.

The fact is, van Persie will not be able to play in every single game, he had run his socks off in Marseille and has played for club and country continuously since the start of the season. It is important that we manage van Persie and not overuse him as we have done previously with Cesc Fabregas.

His replacement, Marouane Chamakh is still searching for the form that he produced at this stage last season. Chamakh could have given Arsenal the lead very early on when an Arteta corner found its way to his head but Chamakh failed to produce the required direction.

Even a team like Stoke who probably work on and rely on set pieces more than most teams can lose a man in the box. Don't get me started on the Manchester United fourth goal conceded at Old Trafford from a set piece. We would be hearing about it today if it was conceded by Arsenal.

Aaron Ramsey had played a lofted pass onto the chest of Gervinho who had darted into the box but the goalkeeper nipped in and grabbed the ball from Gervinho before the ball could drop. That was the dress rehearsal before the live show just before the half hour mark. Aaron Ramsey who was looking sharp after his recent rest, clipped a lovely chipped pass into Gervinho who did very well to check his run, take a step back to remain onside and collect Ramsey's pass, when it dropped he fired a left footed shot past Begovic.

Aaron Ramsey and Gervinho were both in good form, the former fired a low drive narrowly wide before setting up the first goal and the latter tormented Stoke City from the first minute to the last. Gervinho fizzed a ball across the penalty area after beating his man on the left but Chamakh could not quite reach it with his studs.

Stoke were posing very little threat, their long throws were being gobbled up by Mertesacker and company until our good friend Lee Mason decided that Laurent Koscielny was just too short to beat Peter Crouch in the air and gave Stoke City a free kick. It was an inventive set piece from the away side and we were not able to stop Crouch from applying the finishing touches. 1-1.

It beggars belief that Mason can give a free kick for Koscielny's header and then totally ignore the Stoke City player climbing all over Chamakh in the penalty box. incompetence lets Lee Mason off far too lightly.

It became a little difficult to break Stoke City down after that, I was certainly looking towards the bench after a while and I wonder if the players on the pitch were doing the same. With just about twenty minutes on the clock, I wondered if Arsene would remove a midfielder and go for broke but instead it was a straight swap with Chamakh. Andrey Arshavin also replaced Theo Walcott who was not able to influence the game positively.

Eight minutes after the arrival of our captain and goal scorer extraordinaire, Arteta floated a pass out on the right flank to where Gervinho had moved. The Ivorian skipped past his man and crossed low to van Persie who had darted to the near post, his shot squirmed past Begovic. The Stoke goalkeeper will be kicking himself for not stopping it but some luck in our favour will not be unappreciated.

Stoke had to push forward to try and salvage something from the game and with doing that they left gaps to exploit, gaps that were found so with eight minutes to go, Arshavin slipped in Gervinho who had made his way over to the left and his cross found the sliding van Persie to wrap up the game.

Gervinho scored one and made two for van Persie. We have needed other attackers to step up to the mark so his performance was important. Robin van Persie is playing on another confidence level right now and we need other players to have that belief in their game.

It needed RVP to come on and find the back of the net and it may have not been the pulsating display that we all wanted but these wins add to the confidence and also add the points on the board.

Onwards and upwards.

Man of the match: Gervinho

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Comments (8)

• 24-Oct-2011 13:03 | | mr h
  

  Oh Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
  Nothing better than watching a game on live stream... It makes me so happy. Waiting for the stream to load as it went down around the half hour mark, I went to BBC updates and saw the goal... in text. Awesome. The stream then came back up, to show me the tail end of the replay. No sight of the goal.
  
  So impressed was I with my stream, it was even kind enough to show me the entirety of the Stoke goal, including the rubbish free kick. Clearly this stream was a Stoke fan.
  
  I struggled with it for the rest of the first half, but it has this amazing ability to be all smooth when the ball is in the middle of the pitch, but, the second it seems as if anything interesting is about to happen, it reverts to slideshow mode, showing me a arse breaking a picture every ten seconds.
  
  I gave up and went outside for a coffee and a cigarette and decided to download some vintage hairy bush **** from the 70's, because clearly that was more fun than tempting a heart attack due to a shite stream.
  
  I tried a bit again in the second half, because who knows, mebbe RVP will come off the bench and slot one in.
  
  I saw the lovely floater to the right from Arteta, then I saw the Head beat his man, and then... MOVING SODDING PICTURES.... AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  Then the tail end of the highlight...
  
  I really miss watching Arsenal on an actual TV and not just on streams....

• 24-Oct-2011 13:33 | | MeanLean
  

  Haha don't you just love Stoke City streams? I had one also until I found a good old Arsenal Sopcast stream. Nice and smooth. The funny thing is that everyone around the world can get to watch Arsenal on television apart from the actual country that the team play in. Bloody Sky TV!

• 24-Oct-2011 14:51 | | pizzy05
  

  Sorry guys, in Africa here I did watch it in real time,even on HD!! and those goals are quite vintage. Ivorian player of the year? For real, man!!! Yao is the bomb!!! (Am I beginning to sound like an African?)

• 24-Oct-2011 14:56 | | pizzy05
  

  Sorry guys, in Africa here I did watch it in real time,even on HD!! and those goals are quite vintage. Ivorian player of the year? For real, man!!! Yao is the bomb!!! (Am I beginning to sound like an African?)

• 24-Oct-2011 15:10 | | ziggy2633  - case for the defence
  

  Sky sports stats show that contrary to what experts and pundits and media will have you believe Man U are the worst of the top7 clubs in conceding chances with 76 in 5 home games and Arsenal 34 Citeh 24 the closest to Manure is Newcastle with 46.And they claim we have a bad defence.The fear factor and positively created by Utd media laptops allow teams to freeze at OT but if we also encourage our team through thick and thin they will gain confidence.Manure should not be near the top giving how much chances they have given away.

• 24-Oct-2011 23:59 | | richie  - I loved the way we won those 3 points
  

  I loved our captains post match interview where he said he hadn't minded being on the bench because Arsene Wenger had discussed it with him and favoured bringing him on late as an impact sub. Proper player management, great tactics .

• 25-Oct-2011 12:07 | | pizzy05  - Hey! Be Careful!!
  

  Richie, you better be careful before you praise the gaffer for anything, even his immaculate dressing. Some people are out there intent on discrediting Arsene and all who praise him. Man management? He let Cesc go without adequate replacement!! Wenger out!!!
  
  'In Arsene we .....'
  (laughing my ribs off)

• 25-Oct-2011 12:46 | | richie
  

  I'm already AKB in chief what do I care?

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