FA CUP/Stoke City 3 Arsenal 1: THE CONTRASTS in this sort of FA Cup tie have seldom been more extreme. This win will rightly be seen by Stoke as a delightful moment that is instantly accorded a high place in the entire history of the club.
Where Arsenal are concerned, defeat could virtually be regarded as a means of tidying up the schedule and improving their prospects in the competitions that matter most.
There is, even so, nothing bogus about Stoke’s achievement. Tony Pulis’s style is undoubtedly direct but that does not imply a lack of accomplishment. Ricardo Fuller scored the first two goals for Stoke and ought to have had a penalty when he instead confused the referee, Martin Atkinson, by staying on his feet after being fouled by Mikael Silvestre 10 minutes before the interval.
Arsene Wenger retained only Cesc Fabregas and Denilson from the line-up that had defeated Bolton in the Premier League four days earlier. For good measure the Arsenal manager gave a debut to 19-year-old forward Jay Emmanuel-Thomas.
Arsenal had some experience in the ranks. Sol Campbell, whose previous outing for Wenger’s team had been the 2006 Champions League final defeat by Barcelona, got the first appearance of his second spell with the club.
In the main the 35-year-old did rather well but fatigue ultimately took its toll. The centre-half was a yard or two away from Fuller as the striker headed his second goal of the afternoon following a precise cross from Mamady Sidibe in the 78th minute.
A third goal, Dean Whitehead’s first for Stoke, can barely have registered with Wenger as the midfielder connected with a low ball from Matthew Etherington four minutes from the end.
Nothing, for all that, can be allowed to detract from the endeavour and purpose of Pulis’s team. For much of the first half Stoke subdued Arsenal entirely.
In the second minute a Rory Delap throw-in flew high over him and the men he was instructing. Lukasz Fabianski was passive in goal and Fuller easily got in front of him to give Stoke the lead.
Even when Fuller was denied the merited penalty a 1-0 lead looked ample since Arsenal were innocuous and uncoordinated then. It took an unsympathetic ruling that paved the way to an equaliser. In the 42nd minute the ball brushed against the arm of Whitehead, who had been trying to avoid the contact, and a free-kick was harshly awarded by Atkinson. Fabregas rolled the ball to Denilson and his deflected effort ran low into the net.
That goal had surprisingly little impact on what ensued. Arsenal were a little better after half-time but their intensity still fell well short of their opponents’. Fuller had spoken admiringly beforehand of the manner in which Didier Drogba “roughs up” Arsenal in Chelsea victories but there was nothing excessive or violent about Stoke’s approach.
The Arsenal manager developed an interest in a fixture too heated for anyone to stay wholly indifferent. Sending on Aaron Ramsey, Andrey Arshavin and Eduardo in a triple substitution after 69 minutes showed his intent to avoid a replay – even if defeat was not the preferred method of doing so.
There was a certain harmony about the clubs after a match that had eliminated one of them from the FA Cup. Stoke will never forget this afternoon but, like Arsenal, their priority is the Premier League, even if survival is Pulis’s modest objective.
