Well first that was awful, then it was alright, now it's pretty alright.

A deserved win, but only because Stoke were so, so, so awful, it was like a training tutorial where the opposition would wait 80 hours if that's what it took for you to play some football.

First 60 minutes it looked like we hadn't trained at all the last 3 weeks, nobody able to put a simple pass or make any runs. Jack Wilshere with no zip and misplacing 5 yard passes, Ozil and others too. Ramsey just about the only highlight.

Then we finally warmed up and Stoke remained torpid. Aubameyang didn't do great with his first chance but put away the second very nicely, Ozil improved and put in some great balls took charge of the situation, Lacazette was energetic and I thought he did very well (also to keep his cool when elbowed in the face for no reason, will they come back to that I wonder?).

Welbeck was welbeck. Poor guy.

Better post before the general reminder of how quiet it is when we win

Didn't see any of it so will rely on highlights later but very pleased with the result. Good cameraderie seemingly, as Auba in the post match interview had no problem with Lacazette taking the penalty.



Bet they don't. Way back, Frank McLintock mentioned David Batty doing it to one of our players live on Soccer Saturday and it still wasn't investigated at a time when we were particularly focused on (Bergkamp among others). Things haven't changed although not sure it's anti Arsenal anymore; Welbeck will make back page headlines for a dive but a sly elbow is still considered part of the game.

Well done boys. Bit clearer of Burnley anyway. Apparently empty seats again?

Opening 60mins, rubbish. Playing a team with no quality, no confidence and barely a shred of technical quality, and our response is to sit deep and put zero pressure on the ball? Passes had more chance of finding a Stoke player than an Arsenal one, no intensity or quality.

Mustafi the exception in the first half as his go-to-ground philosophy paid off handsomely three times to stop counters set up by Arsenal misuse of the ball.

Lacazette's introduction paid dividends and changed out fortunes. Finally we had a player willing to commit a man and hunt the ball, and make some movement. We earned a fortunate penalty, although no discredit to the ref for giving it, as it looked a blatant pen until the fourth replay. That opened Stoke up and we had no trouble playing through a stretched, disheartened outfit thereafter.

Nice touch from Aubameyang, albeit my Fantasy Football teams were cursing him.

We won at a canter in the end, but no mistake it would have been a different story given the same situation against better opposition. Or if Shaqiri's vicious corner had sneaked in.

Well, Emperor, we're supposed to have retroactive action now, and that looked a clearly deliberate elbow in the face after the initial tangle had cleared up. He didn't need to do it to keep his balance. But I suspect, given that it would be a red if they acted on it, they won't.

I quite agree, but the referee has the get out clause of saying he saw it but thought it wasn't worthy of punishment. Given that everyone is saying he got the first penalty wrong, he could well use that. I've just watched it and already forgotten if the linesman was there or not, but if the linesman says he saw nothing wrong then nothing will happen.

It didn't get discussed afterwards (Lacazette looked more surprised than anything else so didn't fake or exaggerate anything) so I doubt anything will be made of it. It will be a story of how 3-0 flatters us and poor old Stoke came close to an heroic point etc.

Just to update, watched lots of SSN today and have been online but only read one 'paper' newspaper; needless to say, haven't heard a thing about the elbow directed at Lacazette so guess this will be one that gets away. I have heard and read numerous comments about the first penalty though.