Hush Little Arsenal

Jonny on the spot, and a celebration to match

One player scored a goal to win the game on Saturday, but a team earned that win through sheer determination to better an Arsenal side lacking any fight or desire to banish their Britannia Stadium hoo-doo. From the first whistle to the last, as Arsenal players fell to the ground, looking for soft decisions from an ever unreliable Mike Jones, Stoke showed a fight and desire to gain three invaluable points at home. One of the key battles was midfield, with Steven Nzonzi returning to the Potters midfield, forcing Charlie Adam to move further forward in the team and support Peter Crouch. His inclusion came due to the surprise exclusion of Peter Odemwingie, an injury preventing him from getting a taste of victory over another Top 7 side at the Britannia.

Erik Pieters holding off Santi Cazorla as Marko Arnautovic plays the ball

In Odemwingie's absence, Marko Arnautovic, an enigma this season, shone. If there is one area I feel Arnautovic lets himself down, it is in getting goals. He has the talent for scoring, and in his early weeks at Stoke, upon reflection you suspect that all parties would say that he was trying a bit too hard to impress. Since being dropped and having a watching brief in favour of Oussama Assaidi, Arnautovic has quietly gone about his job when chosen, and his stats are showing that he is a quite a complete player, excluding goals. With 5 assists this season (6 in all competitions) he is our creator in chief, with Peter Crouch and Charlie Adam on 4 and 3 assists respectively. Marko has shown that when our squad is at full strength, he is worthy of a place in the starting eleven. An example of what he brings to the team was shown in the last two games. Against Manchester City, it was his absence that deprived Stoke of any late attacking intent, his presence in attack a determiner of whether Stoke can or cannot score a goal. Once he was substituted, followed by Manchester City's winner, Stoke looked like a python without any venom. That venom was on show against Arsenal, and although he had no hand in the goal, he was a thorn in Arsenal's side all match. What impresses me most about him is the intelligence he has on the pitch in forward positions, where now that he has settled into the club and is not overly eager to impress, he has an awareness of what his team mates can do, and such whether he should dribble, pass, or hold up the ball when attacking. A notable moment in the second half saw Arnautovic receive the ball and with the choice of passing the ball immediately or waiting for a good run, and so he waited until Erik Pieters was ready to collect the ball ahead of play. Small cogs in a machine, but considering the stigma Marko as attached to him at times is 'greedy', I believe that he is now showing his true potential to the club.

Seeing Red - What constitutes a red card offence?


Any controversy from Charlie Adam's post-game suspension does not stem from the quality of the offence, at least with this onlooker. At first glance I thought that Olivier Giroud had fallen over and was making the most of any contact, as he had done for the majority of the game up until that point. At a second look, there is contact between Adam's boot and Giroud's leg, though the contact is minimal. I.e. it was not a stamp. In my view, a stamp implies full intent to put a foot through an object with the intent to damage it. The video footage alone suggests that Charlie Adam did not have the time to make a deliberate decision to injure his opponent. Where he is looking also lends a clue to intent, with Adam not looking at Giroud on the floor upon contact, believing that he has jumped over the man on the floor. Therefore the decision should have been classed as an accidental collision, in this viewer's opinion. But, to strengthen the argument, let's look at a similar case.

The main difference between Yaya Toure and Charlie Adams' cases is the position of the football upon contact. When Adam connected with Giroud, the ball had been cleared and Adam's role in that phase of play had ended. This was an off-the-ball incident. With Yaya Toure, the ball was still in play in that Toure still had a slim chance of winning the ball and making contact. After both rising up for a header, the ball was bouncing as Toure raised his foot into the air to try and latch onto the ball which had passed him by, his foot connecting with van Wolfswinkel not far from where it left the ground. Both cases are identical in that the player did not mean to make contact with the other player so the word deliberate (as in a deliberate action to stamp or slash a player's leg) has to take a specific meaning. Out of the two offences, Toure's was the worse due to the ball still being in play and his action having the deliberate intent to kick (the football, not the player) whereas Adam was trying to jump over Giroud and mistimed his landing. If you look at both cases, neither deserved retrospective action as both were accidental contacts within the game, yet the FA has decided that there is a difference. If you are a referee and reading this and can understand the FA's decisions on both cases, feel free to contradict the points made here, otherwise there is a strong case to be made that Stoke have been victimised, not so long after Alan Hansen referred to Stoke City as 'bullies'.

Away from the Brit - Sinking Canaries

Ricky van Wolfswinkel, a disappointing figure this season

Discounting Roberto Soldado, the most disappointing foreign striking import this season should go to Ricky van Wolfswinkel. One goal on the opening day of the season and none since is a poor run of form, but is it a sign of a lack of quality? Or, perhaps more accurately, is it a reflection of a poor team? It's a mix. No matter how you try and look at it, going 27 games without a goal is not good, which suggests that perhaps Ricky was a bit overhyped before his arrival in England. You can score in Portugal and Holland of course, but it is not guarantee you can cut the mustard in England. That is not English arrogance either, merely a statement that England, Spain, Germany and Italy are four of the toughest leagues in European football, where goals are no guarantee for a mid-table striker. What may also have affected Norwich is the same problem with afflicted Queen's Park Rangers last season, a clash of character. If you were to ask me to identify Norwich City's football in the last two years, I would have said they held similar traits to Stoke in that they were not afraid of having a battle of a game, yet they had a little bit more attacking intent than what we did. Now though, I cannot identify them. There are too many in the squad who do not seem to be up for a fight, hence why results such as their win over Tottenham Hotspur are not as surprising as some would insist. Tottenham are a team who will allow you to play, to an extent obviously. Norwich can get a result there as technically they have some quality players, but they do not have enough grafters. In the Stoke team, you think of fighters, grafters, however you want to refer to them, the players who will fight for a result and you can name them easily (Whelan, Walters, Shawcross, Wilson and so on), yet look at the Norwich team and I cannot see any of the fight that typified their first seasons in the Premier League. If they are to survive, they will need to find that again, but hopefully not in enough time for the sake of Stoke's survival.

Jonny Howson celebrating scoring against Stoke City in September

What is so strange about Norwich's lack of fight in general this season has been that on their last visit to the Britannia Stadium, they were the team showing the desire to win. Others may disagree, but I still class this as Stoke's worst performance of the season so far as they showed little to no creativity, let alone providing supporters with hope that they would score a goal. Stoke's fortunes have improved recently but to underestimate Norwich this weekend would be to invite another result like the September fixture again. The key, as stated previously, to getting any positive result is to match or better Norwich's desire to win. Whilst they have good players on the ball, just like Arsenal last week, if a fight is on, will they stand up to it or take flight? Stoke need to ask this question, and with the same tactics as last week, minus Charlie Adam and including Peter Odemwingie again, they have enough to get a draw, and hopefully more from East Anglia.

England Expects - Shaw trouble:

Not a surprise inclusion for the Southampton full-back

Luke Shaw seems certain to get his international debut for England on Wednesday, with the media suggesting that it is a straight battle between him and Ashley Cole who goes to Brazil alongside Leighton Baines. Both players have their merits for inclusion in the squad, Shaw appearing to be one of the nations up and coming stars and a place in his first World Cup squad not unwarranted, whilst Cole has been one of the nation's best representatives, on the pitch at least. This selection will spell trouble either way though. and not just because of the disappointment either player will suffer when told they won't be travelling to South America. If Cole is included in the World Cup squad, it will be another sign that youth fails to be given a chance in the England squad, even in a supporting role which Shaw would be providing at such an early stage of his career. If Shaw is included though, it is a gamble compared to taking Cole to the finals. If Baines suffers an injury, Shaw would be a novice in comparison to Cole and could easily be caught cold at the wrong moment. For Roy Hodgson it is an interesting dilemma, and hopefully for England, the answer to this problem will be made easier to solve after 90 minutes against Denmark.

Quick Snippet - Alan Pardew:

Pardew seeing Crimson mist, let alone a bland red version

David Meyler has to be applauded for not overreacting to Alan Pardew's Glaswegian kiss at the weekend. It is an unprecedented situation, even outside of sport, regardless of the amount of contact the headbutt made. Do you hear of rival CEOs meeting up and clashing heads with members of their opposition's company? No. How Pardew has kept his job is miraculous. I repeat, despite their not being much force behind the headbutt, it is something that should not be condoned. Unless Newcastle plan to take action at the end of the season and are just waiting for the FA to make their decision on punishment before making further announcements on what to do about their manager, I can't help but feel that the fine they have given him (£100,000) is not enough, if anything to maintain the integrity their club should have.