SOCCER: Arsenal 1 Stoke City 0ARSENAL ARE now only a point behind Manchester United but the price could be particularly costly after Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott both suffered injuries on what became a frustrating evening for Arsene Wenger's team after the brightest of starts.
With Arsenal’s next outing the League Cup final against Birmingham City on Sunday, before an FA Cup fifth-round replay next Wednesday and the Champions League last-16 return leg in Barcelona the following week, Wenger will pray that Fabregas and Walcott can recover quickly from what appeared to be hamstring and ankle problems respectively.
Arsenal had required around 90 seconds to illustrate they were in slick working order, eight minutes to fully breach the Stoke City defence. Their opening attack featured Jack Wilshere marauding forward then linking with Fabregas on the edge of the area. The Spaniard delivered a perfect pass to place Walcott in behind the defence before he blazed a shot that beat Asmir Begovic but smacked off his right post and back into the goalkeeper’s hands. Already it appeared to be Arsenal’s three points to throw away, though this sense would become muted as the half wore on.
After Rory Delap had been jeered a couple of times for launching his long throws, which were repelled comfortably enough by Arsenal, the home side moved down-field and won a corner on the right. Wilshere’s left boot flicked this over and though Ryan Shawcross stuck his head on the ball he merely moved possession on to Nicklas Bendtner, who was lurking beyond the far post. He chose correctly in scooping the ball on to the head of Sebastien Squillaci, who was stationed in front of the goal, and the defender finished coolly for his first goal since joining last summer.
The next major incident was not pleasant for any Arsenal loyalist. On 12 minutes Wenger and his players faced the sight of an injured Fabregas sloping reluctantly off the pitch.
The captain was replaced by Andrey Arshavin, which meant Samir Nasri going inside to occupy Fabregas’s central position. While this did not cause any break in Arsenal possession it did stunt their earlier fluency, with many of their attacks becoming static around Stoke’s 18-yard line.
One sequence of passes ended with Arshavin unloading a shot that hardly threatened to double the score but this was as encouraging as it got for a side who were then offered a reminder of the effectiveness of direct play after 33 minutes. John Carew’s powerful 25-yard volley forced Wojciech Szczesny to fling himself across goal to keep the ball out.
Wenger’s men closed the half virtually becalmed. Nasri stepped up to pull one free-kick wide but, beyond Tony Pulis complaining after Jonathan Walters was booked for fouling Walcott, Fabregas’s exit had proved to have slowly drained the contest of quality and incident.
Nearly a year since these sides had met at the Britannia Stadium, where a challenge from Shawcross on Aaron Ramsey left the midfielder with a double leg fracture to provoke bitter feeling between Wenger and Pulis, the emotion began bubbling. It started with Carew and Johan Djourou having a mild clash near the corner flag that drew abuse from the home support.
Djourou then played a crucial role in stopping a Stoke attack. Jermaine Pennant collected possession from a throw on the right, motored down his flank, and then delivered the cross. Shawcross’s header was on target but it hit Djourou to go wide.
Robert Huth also came close to an equaliser when the Delap slingshot landed the ball in the area and the defender rose above a melee to head over.
Having missed badly after Arshavin had expertly teed him up in the area, a subsequent coming together with Dean Whitehead ended with Walcott carried off on a stretcher.
GuardianService
ARSENAL: Szczesny, Sagna, Squillaci, Djourou, Clichy, Fabregas (Arshavin 14), Song, Wilshere, Walcott (Denilson 71), Bendtner (Chamakh 80), Nasri. Subs not used: Almunia, Rosicky, Eboue, Gibbs. Booked: Clichy.
STOKE CITY: Begovic, Wilson (Wilkinson 87), Shawcross, Huth, Pugh, Pennant, Whitehead, Delap, Whelan, Walters (Fuller 78), Carew. Subs not used: Sorensen, Higginbotham, Collins, Jones, Diao. Booked: Walters, Wilson.
Referee: Peter Walton (Northamptonshire).
