Arsenal 2 Stoke 0

By Myles Palmer

Arsenal 2 Stoke 0

Arshavin 26, Ramsey 79

Russian's captain was the star of Arsene Wenger’s 500th Premier League game.

It was Arshavin's first game for Arsenal as a lone striker and his brilliance was intermittent as he eased into his new role.

He scored the first goal after winning a penalty which Fabregas missed, then made the second goal with a tiny pass.

Early on, when Fabregas released him in the box, his first touch was poor and Sorensen dived at his feet to concede a corner. Then Arshavin played in Nasri, who shot at Sorensen from silly angle, which occasionally works. Then Arshavin got a nice ball from Nasri but made a bad return pass. Arsenal wobbled when a Delap throw ｄ ｒｏｐped out of the sky and hit Almunia on the chest.

When Arshavin went past Diao, ignoring a kick on the ankle, Delap tripped him in the box. Diao and Delap were too big and clumsy to tackle him neatly or fairly.

Sorensen read Fabregas's penalty and saved it. Why didn’t Arshavin take the penalty himself?

A Rosicky pass found Arshavin in the box but he mishit his shot so completely that the ball went out for a throw on the far side.

When Fabregas released Arshavin into the box again, he held off a bump from right back Wilkinson and took three touches and hit his sidefoot shot early and low and it went in off the post for 1-0 in 26 minutes.

A very classy goal. Part of Arshavin's genius is an extraordinary ability to hit accurate shots and passes a nanosecond sooner than anybody else in the EPL. He is a virtuoso who surprises his opponents by doing things other players can't do.

Arshavin was like Romario, the tiny centre forward who scored 71 in 85 games for Brazil, and 34 in 46 for Barcelona.

When Arshavin fed Traore on the left, after telling him where to run, Traore's cross hit Faye and then hit the far post but when Fabregas whacked the rebound for 2-0, Eboue managed to block his shot on the line. Bad luck? Well, I don't think it's the first time Eboue has done that. When Arshavin and Eboue broke together, Eboue made the wrong run.

When Rosicky is playing well he is a little Rolls Royce and when his pass released Arshavin on the left, the little man twinkled to the by-line and tried to dink it across to Fabregas.

The second half started with Vela on for Rosicky, who is out for three weeks with a groin injury.

When Eboue found Arshavin with a pass on the edge of the box, the Russian produced a good turn and a well-aimed shot that obliged Sorensen to concede a corner.

Stoke boss Tony Pulis put on James Beattie when it was 0-1 after 62, as he had probably planned to do. It was a damage limitation exercise :  sit back, keep your shape, don't get too many people in the box even on Delap's throws, let them have the ball in wide areas.

The visitors had quite a good spell and Tuncay even got away once but Gallas made a terrific recovery tackle in the box.

When Arsenal's six-pass move went across the pitch and came back, Ramsey, on for Eboue, played the ball forward to Arshavin, who managed to beat Huth to touch the ball back into his run and Ramsey went into the D and beat Sorensen with a low shot hit with the outside of his right foot.

Score : 2-0 in 79 min.

Arshavin picked up a loose ball in centrefield and accelerated and supplied a pass of rare delicacy to Fabregas, who shot past the far post.

Late on, Fabregas nicked  a ball past Faye to play in Arshavin but right back Wilkinson made a superb covering run and tackle.

The goals came in 26  and 79, so Arsenal had needed 53 minutes to score the second goal. The fans hoped the second would come sooner but give Stoke a bit of credit.

Fabregas was really average on Saturday. The day after the World Cup draw, with Spain now favourites, was he thinking about South Africa?

VERDICT : Arshavin was the only player on the field.

When Eduardo led the attack, it failed. When Vela led the attack, it failed. When Arshavin led the attack, Arsenal won 2-0 against a big, rugged team.

Being five foot seven was not a disadvantage because Arshavin is a world class player with two great feet, an electric spurt of pace, tremendous bottle, and wonderful awareness of space and angles. Even on a test-run like this, he destroyed Stoke.

So why didn't Wenger give him the striking job before now?
Ask yourself : Why didn't he play him in the middle until now?

Why has he not given Arshavin a new contract? He should treasure the Russian, who is his best player, pay him more, extend his contract by two years. Every clown and crock at the club has been given a new contract, or is about to sign one, but Arshavin hasn't !

Why not? Because he's not part of Wenger's failing Youth Project. How pathetic. How wholly absurd and typical. He rewards failure but does not reward success. Arshavin saved Wenger's arse last season and is doing it again now. Not improving Arshavin's contract is madness.

Only Wenger, of all the managers on this planet, could take self-defeating stubbornness to such a suicidal level. And only Wenger would be allowed to reward muppets while not rewarding genius. Almunia, Denilson, Eboue, Song, Clichy and Walcott owe their entire careers to him, so they will never put in a transfer request.

MANCHESTER CITY were really, really up for the visit of  leaders Chelsea and they came back from an Adebayor own-goal to win 2-1 after Shay Given saved Lampard's penalty. City played with real fire and desire.They really went for it. If they played like that every week, City would be second, not sixth.

MAN UNITED went to London and thrashed West Ham 4-0. They're say new Irish lad Darron Gibson, who has scored three goals in a week, is like Paul Scholes. But he reminds me more of Roy Keane and Neil Webb. He has 6 goals in 21 appearances for Man U.

SPURS went 2-0 up at Everton on Sunday but then Defoe and Dawson scored. Then Hibbert conceded a penalty as Palacios ran onto a Crouch knockdown. After a long delay, Defoe took a penalty I knew he would miss.

That 2-2 draw puts Spurs one point behind Arsenal in fourth place. David Moyes had 10 injuries and a suspension and Everton have only won one of their last eight games.

 P.S. “Smallness of mind is the cause of stubbornness, and we do not credit readily what is beyond our view,” said a Frenchman, François de la Rochefoucauld.

He wasn't a football manager. He was a seventeenth century author.

Dec 7, 2009