Wojciech Szczesny reacted furiously after being dropped following his cigarette shame.
Arsene Wenger picked Colombian keeper David Ospina after Mirror Sport revealed this week Szczesny was fined £20,000 for smoking in the showers at Southampton.
But the Pole believed he would face Stoke and was understood to be angry when Wenger told him he was axed for the game and now faces a fight to regain his place.
Szczesny looked angry when TV cameras panned to him on the bench as he kept the hood up on his big coat and sulked his way through Arsenal’s comfortable victory thanks to Alexis Sanchez’s brace and Laurent Koscielny’s opener.
Wenger said: “How can you take a decision? You know how you can take a decision. Look I don’t want to talk too much about that because the more I talk, the less I inform you.”
The Gunners boss insisted the smoking issue was not the reason behind his decision but says Szczesny is not guaranteed a return for next Sunday’s trip to Manchester City.
“I don’t know, I haven’t made a decision yet,” said Wenger. “I made a decision for today’s game. Szczesny is our number one, he is competing with Ospina and Martinez and that’s our job, we have to accept.”
Wenger was full of praise for Arsenal’s man-of-the-match Sanchez after his heroics saw off Stoke and he says the Chilean forward helps raise the rest of the team.
“The better the team plays, the more he (Sanchez) is involved in the game because we attacked a lot, we were a very offensive team today,” said Wenger.
“He is confident. With Giroud we can be more direct, with him we can be a bit more running at people, so it’s a good combination offensively.
“I think we moved well without the ball and we moved the ball well as well, as that’s the basis of our game. Overall we created chances and were mobile and the speed of our game created problems for Stoke and we took advantage of it.”
Wenger and Stoke boss Mark Hughes both played down Marko Arnautovic’s shove on Mathieu Debuchy which left the French full back with a dislocated shoulder and that only heightens Arsenal’s injury problems.
Kieran Gibbs missed out with an Achilles injury, Calum Chambers was ill and now Debuchy is facing a lengthy lay-off.
Wenger added: “It (the shove) didn’t look bad from the outside. With a dislocated shoulder you need a diagnosis from a specialist and we don’t know yet but he will certainly not play next week.
“Debuchy can play centre back and if he is not here he cannot play centre-back so this is a position at the moment where we are short.”
