I'm finding this club increasingly annoying with every day that goes by so I have to write this article to let it all out.
I am not against physical football. There is nothing inherently evil about Stoke City. They have not always been like this, nor will they always be like this.
But, the truth is, on saturday, as has been the case so many times in recent years, their tactics were a disgrace. They set out to hurt us, not to play football. I watched every second of that game. There were countless late fouls, sly kicks, stamps, studs, you name it. Many happened after the whistle had gone or out of sight of the referee. This was quite evidently not a coincidence as it was extremely excessive and happens pretty much every time we play at the Britannia Stadium.
Every foul was so blatantly a part of a wider mindset/tactic/whatever you want to call it to try and hurt us. That's not fair, respectable, or even physical, it's just against the rules.
And that's what really annoys me. If they were workhorses who hassled us off the ball at every opportunity and just generally showed superior strength, then fair enough, I can respect that.
But Stoke don't do that, they adopt appalling, anti-football, overly-physical, rule-breaking tactics and they think they are the men, the true warriors, of the Premier League. There's nothing manly about sly fouls, stamping on people whilst they're down, about going up for headers with your studs showing, kneeing opposition players after the whistle has gone, or most crucially, having to rely on breaking the laws of the game to increase your chances of winning. It's wrong. There's nothing else to it. It is quite simply not ok to adopt these tactics.
And when Giroud collapses in pain after being stamped on, their neanderthal fans start singing "Same old Arsenal, always cheating". Then Arsenal fans/players/coaching staff complain these tactics and are labelled softies, or something ridiculous like that. Then their player is charged with violent conduct and their Chief Executive says "clubs like ours very rarely succeed in appeals to the FA". Awww, poor Stoke City, the true victims hey!
Not to mention breaking a players leg, then having their manager come out and have a go at Wenger for calling the challenge unacceptable (oh, so it was acceptable was it Tony?) and then subsequently booing the player that broke his leg.
I may sound like a broken record representation of Arsenal fans views on Stoke City Football Club, but that doesn't matter, because truth is truth. They did adopt these tactics against us on Saturday, and they did it most of the time under Pulis as well. The fact that people may be bored of hearing it doesn't change the fact that it's true.
I for one look forward to the day when Stoke appoint a manager who is interested in playing football. The fact that a club with ambitions of breaking into the top half of the PL appoint someone like Mark Hughes is beyond laughable. Fortunately, his type seem to be a dying breed.
I feel much better now.
Thoughts?
Stoke City - Delusional fools
posted on 5/3/14
There is still no excuse to continually stamp on players foot,
posted on 5/3/14
comment by Paulpowersleftfoot #SAVEDAVE (U1037)
posted 15 minutes ago
You see you can't actually stamp on players. I think that's probably where you have confused yourself.
Do you realise this?
Is anyone blaming stoke for arsenal being trophyless?? I don't think they are.
posted on 5/3/14
100 red cards over 17 and a half years is nothing. It works out to be 6 red cards a season which is pretty average.
posted on 6/3/14
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Would like to see an Arsenal team that could stand up to a side like Stoke.
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I would too. If the unintended message from this topic is that Arsenal players are intimidated by teams like Stoke, then, maybe, that says more about the Gunners than it does about Stoke.
The "candy ass" style of back-and-forth across the field style of football that Arsenal has been playing perhaps creates "softer" players. I've been saying for a long time that Arsenal needs a couple of "hard men" on the field to balance these types of situations.
posted on 6/3/14
comment by Globaled (U7198)
posted 17 hours, 34 minutes ago
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Would like to see an Arsenal team that could stand up to a side like Stoke.
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I would too. If the unintended message from this topic is that Arsenal players are intimidated by teams like Stoke, then, maybe, that says more about the Gunners than it does about Stoke.
The "candy ass" style of back-and-forth across the field style of football that Arsenal has been playing perhaps creates "softer" players. I've been saying for a long time that Arsenal needs a couple of "hard men" on the field to balance these types of situations.
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These comments make for good rhetoric, but when you actually analyse the games we've played against Stoke there is very little basis for them. Can you give me one specific example? When Giroud got stamped on, should he have just got up and pretended it never happened? When Wilshere got kneed in the side of the leg, should he have kneed the opposing player back?
posted on 6/3/14
comment by Paulpowersleftfoot #SAVEDAVE (U1037)
posted 20 hours, 11 minutes ago
Stoke know arsenal have a weak mentality and exploit it time and again
Look closer to home to see the problem because it really isn't stokes fault that arsenal lack bottle and a winning mentality
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You've failed to engage with a single point I've made. When Giroud got stamped on, was that a lack of bottle and winning mentality? Was that an example of Stoke being braver and stronger than arsenal? Again, if you re-watch the games we've played against Stoke you'll quite clearly see that their tactics against us are unacceptable, and that is the problem. Not to say that our mentality is perfect, but that does not excuse what they do or change the fact that they do it.
posted on 6/3/14
Arshavin,
I don't think that Stoke kicks the stuffing out of every team's players. They know what they are dealing with when they play the Gunners. With all due respect, you are part of the "poor little Arsenal" mentality that isn't going to be corrected until the word gets out that these offenses will not solely be left up to the referee, but maybe there will be some "on-field" consequences? In the mean time
posted on 14/4/14
Globaled, I notice you couldn't engage with a single point I made. You miss the point which is that these tactics are against the rules and do not represent what football should be about and nor do they represent manliness.
How can you acknowledge the fact that they deliberately set out to break the rules and kick us and then call us crybabies. Do you not see the flaw in that?
And actually, you raise a good point. No other club has to put up with these tactics because they adopt them (at least not to the same extent) against any other club. And then whose to say that every other club wouldn't struggle with them just as much as we do?
Sorry for the late reply btw, but, well, why the hell not.
posted on 30/4/14
*because they don't adopt them
posted on 30/4/14
you reply to him months later then correct yourself another fortnight after that... do you live in a black hole or something?