Morning Gooners…

No match report this morning, there are plenty out there if you want to read one.

What’s the point in one really, we have all either watched yesterdays game on the television, a good stream or even the highlights later on in the day. Some may have even been fortunate to have been in the stands at The Britannia Stadium and be part of what was a loud and proud group of away fans..

What are the positives from the game?

Another clean sheet.

The performance of Kieran Gibbs and Carl Jenkinson, both of whom were very solid and both of have been under scrutiny from the fans.

Mannone – well his kicking was very good, possibly the best distribution by one of our goal keepers in a long time. Not sure about the rest of his game as he was hardly tested and again that has to be credit to our defensive unit.

Giroud – well in my opinion, his performance deserved that outrageous shot to dip just a little more and find the back of the net. Love him already. Of course some will say he should have passed to Ramsey who was free in the centre and maybe he should but I suspect on another day, when he no longer needs to open his scoring account, he will.

There were plenty of other really good performances yesterday, in fact too many to mention…

Negatives:

We didn’t score!

And that for me is about it…..

Seriously, that is the one and only thing missing, an end product and I don’t lay that blame on ours strikers. Gervinho and Diaby really need to start shooting instead of looking for another pass.

59% possession, 16 shots on goal of which 6 were on target, the best of which came from Santi Cazorla which forced a good save from the Stoke keeper. We earned 12 corners but couldn’t make one of them really count.

After the game, Jamie Redkrapp decided to voice his opinion:

For me, those two aren’t in the same league as Van Persie. I was disappointed in both of them.

Wenger’s response to that was:

I have worked for 30 years on the football pitch, every day. I know what it is to improve a football player.

What it is to go out morning and afternoon and try to make a player out of somebody. Not everybody can say that.

Of course they are quality players. I do not listen too much to what people say — I try to see if it is exaggerated or not.

In other words Jamie, shut up and mind your own business!

I wonder if he thought the same about Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp when they first struggled in the Premier League, it took both of those players a while to get off the mark.

He’s a football pundit, nothing more, nothing less and not a very good one at that. If he believes he is better than Wenger then why is he not a football manager or coach by now?

Podolski and Giroud will start scoring goals, they just need to get their first.

Arsene Wenger on what is missing up front:went onto say:

It is an understanding because you have Cazorla, Podolski, Giroud… one month ago they didn’t know each other. So that will come. There is some work to do on the training ground but you can feel the potential.

You can see as well that there is something missing – we are not spontaneous enough in some situations. I am very positive about my team. People will say ‘OK, you didn’t score for two games’ and I cannot deny that. We played against two teams who defend very well as a unit – Sunderland and Stoke. Overall I believe we can be a good surprise in this championship.

‘You can see as well that there is something missing’.

This sentence is one to make us believe that another striker is high on Wenger’s list of players to sign and that has to be good news. I say that not because I think the same as Redkrapp, but what happens if we suffer an injury up front? Yesterdays omission of both Park and Chamakh would suggest that neither are in Wengers plans this season.

The Daily Mail link us to Newcastle’s Yohan Cabaye, they linked us to his team-mate Tiote yesterday but Wenger soon dismissed that story later in the day but Wenger has hinted over the last few days that he wants to add a defensive midfielder to the squad.

The links to defenders Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Angel Rangel won’t go away either although Mbiwa has suggested he hopes to join AC Milan.

So a striker, defensive midfielder and a defender and we’ll be sorted 😉

Five days left Arsene, just five days…..

That’s it for another day, have a good one…..