Stoke C 3 Arsenal 1:LIKE HIS team, Arsene Wenger had no defence yesterday. Empty-handed yet again after another disappointing season, Arsenal gave the impression the summer break could not come soon enough as they subsided gently to defeat against a Stoke City team who were supposed to have one eye on the FA Cup final on Saturday .

Yet still Wenger stubbornly insists his players have done well. Asked if he was having second thoughts about the quality of his class of 2010-11, the Arsenal manager said: “This team has done well overall this season.”

It is a verdict certain to raise a few eyebrows, if not hackles, in the red half of north London. How could a team good enough to beat Manchester United a week ago allow themselves to be outplayed by Stoke’s mid-table artisans?

“That’s what happens in the Premier League,” Wenger said, stonewalling any questions which could lead him to criticise his underachieving charges.

At least he didn’t talk up their potential, which falls on deaf ears these days. After years of promise, they ought to be delivering by now. Majority attention was elsewhere, of course, and Arsenal looked like guests who had been invited to the wrong party. Robin van Persie ought to have given them an early lead when he fired over when well placed, but after that it was nearly all Stoke.

They were, as Wenger admitted, “more competitive” than their opponents, impressive testimony to the sleeves-rolled management of Tony Pulis. Already in their first FA Cup final, they have every chance of a top-10 finish, which would be the club’s best since 1975.

Their rudimentary style will never please the purists, indeed Wenger has likened them to rugby players, but Pulis is not about to apologise for his direct methods, and the home fans revelled in rubbing the Gallic aesthete’s nose in the brown stuff as the goals went in.

They chorused “Boring” at Arsenal’s composed passing game, cheered their approval when Rory Delap hurled the ball into the opposition penalty area. The first goal, after 28 minutes, had stupidity at its root. Playing against the high priests of the set-piece, Andrey Arshavin senselessly pushed over Jermaine Pennant in the corner quadrant on the right. Pennant dusted himself down and delivered the free-kick to the near post, where Kenwyne Jones used his midriff to bundle it over the line.

Cue “One-nil to the rugby team” and “Swing low sweet chariot”.

Pennant made it 2-0 with a shot from the edge of the D which was deflected upwards by Johan Djourou’s hapless intervention. Despite the change in trajectory, Wojciech Szczesny should have done better than help it on its way into the net. This time the crowd’s ironic salute was: “We only score from a throw-in.” It could easily have been 3-0 by half-time, Jonathan Walters rattling the crossbar from near the byline on the left.

Arshavin and Aaron Ramsey, both ineffective, were withdrawn during the interval, but any improvement was minuscule and Robert Huth threatened to improve the margin with a bristling header.

These two teams are never going to be friends, and their mutual antagonism boiled over in the 69th minute, when Jack Wilshere was fortunate to escape with a yellow card for a bad foul to which Pennant took retaliatory exception. Stoke immediately substituted the man of the match, with Wembley in mind.

Van Persie finally pulled one back in the 81st minute, with his 22nd goal of the season in all competitions, but Stoke responded immediately, Jonathan Walters scoring from eight yards.

The first goal exercised Wenger the most. “We’ve conceded 21 from set-pieces this season, which is the worst in the league, and only 17 from open play, which is the best,” he said. “Today, he (Jones) didn’t even have to jump to get to the ball, and this is something we have to correct.”

Pulis hopes to have Matthew Etherington fit in time for the final, but was worried last night about Huth, who was substituted with a damaged knee.