hugh jardon wrote:Stoke are a decent team who make the most of the assets they have - decent keeper, solid defenders, workaholic midfielders and strikers combined with utilising setpeices in front of one of the best home supports in the premiership the results are generally fantastic and they consistantly overachieve.
Any one who has played football must appreciate there is no better feeling than beating a better team. Every team must play to their stregths, it's all very well posting messages of hate on an internet forum but I'm sure at the start of the season if you offered Stoke three points in the league and a cup victory to boot they'd bite your hand off (not literally)
Still a great win for us, good to see some character at long last.
AW on Stoke November 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... tball.html
Arsene Wenger says Stoke City intentionally injured Arsenal's players
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has launched a passionate defence of his beleaguered side, effectively accusing Stoke City's players of deliberately going out to inflict injury on his team during the newly promoted club's 2-1 win over the Gunners on Saturday.
By John Ley
Published: 8:38PM GMT 04 Nov 2008
Theo Walcott: Arsene Wenger defends claim that his Arsenal team 'lacked spine' in loss to Stoke City
Theo Walcott and Emmanuel Adebayor both miss Wednesday night's Champions League Group G clash with Fenerbahce at the Emirates Stadium as a result of challenges by Rory Delap and Ryan Shawcross respectively.
Not only is Wenger furious with the challenges, but also with subsequent comments that claimed Arsenal were lacking a spine in their fight for the Premier League title.
Thomas Sorensen, the Stoke goalkeeper, claimed that Arsenal "lack that bit of spine you need" but Wenger, whose side have dropped points against Sunderland, Tottenham, Stoke and Hull, retorted: "For me the brave one is not the one who tackles from behind the player who tries to play football, that is the coward.
"All I can say is they [Arsenal's players] are brave and, for me, you need to have more courage to play football when you know that someone is tackling you from behind without any intention to play the ball.
"The only intention is to hurt you and I can show some tackles where I can prove what I say. The one who is tackling is not the brave one. For me the brave one is the player who is trying to play football.
"It happened at the weekend. Do you think Delap tried to play the ball when he tackled Walcott? Or that Shawcross tried to play the ball when he tackled Adebayor off the pitch? All the players have been injured deliberately.
"I am not ready to listen to things that are completely untrue and make people who are cowards, for me, look brave."
Wenger’s outburst provoked a predictable response from Stoke. Peter Coates, the Stoke chairman, said: "I am really very disappointed in what he has said.
"That wasn't the game I saw, it wasn't the game the fans at the ground saw and it wasn't the game that the referee saw. I really am disappointed in him and I couldn't really disagree with him more.
"There was only one player who got sent off in that match and that was an Arsenal player (Robin Van Persie). Things happen in football, we don't have nasty players in the team who go out to injure players and we don't want that."
"Perhaps he (Wenger) has had a difficult few days with his results, there is a lot of pressure in football and I think it could be a manifestation of that."
Bendtner takes swipe at Stoke
Nicklas Bendtner backed Arsene Wenger’s attack on Stoke’s players on Tuesday when he said: “Some of the challenges they made were not very nice and I think the referee could have tried to stop it by having a word a bit earlier.
“But if they want to try to kick us we have to deal with that and still try to come out on top. But I thought some of the tackles were unnecessary.
“If other teams want to be physical we can deal with that. If we play our way well enough then that should be enough to win games."
Shawcross can take his tears and stick them were the sun does not shine.
If you came in that high, you KNOW what happens if you don't get the ball. Its very obvious.
So he went in there either not a) caring what happens if he does not get the ball, or b) know full well he is making a career-risking out of control tackle.
None are forgivable. You have world class athletes out there - they KNOW exactly what it means to go full speed and if you're not making a grass cutter tackle other than the ball, the only other thing you can possibly making contact with at that height is leg.
Put in layman's terms this is like driving around a corner into a pedestrian crossing at full speed and not bothering to slow down or to even look. When you kill people, you cant turn around crying and saying "oh I'm sorry".
Shawcross will be at our training ground 2morrow with the england team 
