And with that, I’m gone. It’s been a blast. Here’s a match report for you. Bye!
Jesé scored the only goal on his debut as Arsenal endured another miserable visit to Stoke
Updated
Sat 19 Aug 2017 20.08 EDT
First published on Sat 19 Aug 2017 11.30 EDT
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Key events
A close-up of a slow motion replay suggests that Lacazette had half a right foot beyond the last defender before scoring his disallowed goal and thus was in fact offside. Just.
Stoke succeeded despite themselves there: for most of the game they played an unwisely high defensive line and Arsenal repeatedly chipped the ball over them and into the path of willing runners – though this only allowed Butland and Zouma to showcase their repertoire of chance-denying tackles, blocks and stops. Once Stoke themselves had scored, however, Arsenal took off a defender, brought on another striker and forced the home side back, after which they actually looked considerably more secure.
It was wildly frustrating stuff from Arsenal, and for all their dominance – 77% possession, apparently – they actually created few clear chances. Had a very marginal offside decision gone the other way and Lacazette’s apparent equaliser stood, or a much clearer first-half penalty been awarded, it might have ended very differently.
Meanwhile Jesé didn’t look fully fit, but he might be a classic Stoke signing. There were a few nice touches, a couple of impressive runs, and a very smart first-time finish. And, in the end, a very fine win.
“Arsenal have too many technical, gifted players in the XI. They need a couple of players with steel,” says Steven Gerrard on BT Sport.
Final score: Stoke City 1-0 Arsenal
90+6 mins: Butland boots the free-kick upfield, and the referee blows his whistle!
90+5 mins: Arsenal swing the ball in; it’s headed away to Oxlade-Chamberlain. 94 minutes and 55 seconds have been played. He assesses his options and then passes to Mustafi, who is very clearly offside. And that should be that.
90+4 mins: A fine cross from Monreal finds Giroud, who does excellently to get in front of the defender but heads wide!
90+3 mins: Oxlade-Chamberlain, who for my money has had a fine game, chips the ball to the back post. Giroud is waiting there and does his job, nodding it down. And nobody – nobody – is in the six-yard box to profit.
90+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there will be about five minutes.
89 mins: Perhaps the recovery wasn’t so miraculous: Pieters has gone off, and Martins Indi is on.
88 mins: For 80 minutes Arsenal looked on the verge of scoring. For the last eight, though, they’ve looked clueless and desperate and, now Stoke’s defence is sitting so deep the ball can’t be chipped over them, totally devoid of ideas.
@Simon_Burnton never mind the stokers on the steps, what's Arthur Fowler doing there with his trademark flat cap on?Pauline won't be happy!
— Rory T (@RoryThorp) August 19, 2017
87 mins: Pieters stayed down, and then required lengthy treatment, after which he appears to miraculously recover.
85 mins: It wasn’t a penalty, but it was a free-kick and probably a booking.
84 mins: Mustafi fouls Pieters on the very edge of the Arsenal penalty area. Is it a free-kick or a penalty? The crowd holds its collective breath. And then keeps holding it. And then realise the referee has waved play on, and bay in fury.
82 mins: Despite the substitutions, Arsenal seem far from invigorated. Indeed, these have probably been Stoke’s most comfortable five minutes of the match.
81 mins: Great photograph, this – check out the Stoke fans on the steps.
78 mins: A double substitution for Arsenal. The disappointing Lacazette goes off along with Xhaka, while Walcott and Iwobi join the fray.
76 mins: Arsenal are battering on the door here, but then they have been for most of the match. Here’s that offside decision in full – not “a mile onside”, but Lacazette does look level:
Horrendous decision. Lacazette is a mile onside.
— ArsenalFanTV (@ArsenalFanTV) August 19, 2017
🔴 1-0 ⚫️ pic.twitter.com/hS3eCn7rpE
72 mins: Arsenal score – and it’s disallowed! A backheel flick from the edge of the area diverts the ball to Lacazette, who lashes in. The flag is raised, but it looked extremely close.
71 mins: Jesé’s day is done – his lack of match fitness having become apparent, Sobhi comes on to replace him.
70 mins: It’s raining chances for Arsenal! In the latest torrent, Shawcross flies into Lacazette to deny an obvious chance, Fletcher gets in the way of an Özil shot, and the German curls another effort wide.
68 mins: Another chip into the Stoke area, and Ramsey controls this one beautifully, juggles it a bit and then shoots into a defender.
67 mins: Arsenal miss another! Giroud’s first touch is to nudge the ball into the run of Welbeck, bursting into the area, but he takes a touch too many before scuffing a shot into Butland’s face.
66 mins: Arsenal make a substitution, taking off a defender (Kolasinac) and bringing on a regular match-rescuer (Giroud).
63 mins: And again! Fletcher’s shot from range is deflected and loops to Choupo-Moting, running into the area, but his shot from an acute angle is saved by Cech. And Peter Malik proposes another Jesé-themed song. “Very nice chap, by the way, that Joshua Kadison, met him once,” he adds. Name-dropper.
62 mins: And Stoke nearly score on the break! Pieters carries the ball down the left, picks out Berahino with his cross, and the ball bounces towards the corner of goal only for Cech to divert it wide!
60 mins: And another one! Mustafi’s low pass into the area finds Ramsey, whose first-time left-foot shot goes straight at Butland.
59 mins: Chance for Arsenal! Özil play the ball into the area and Welbeck rises unmarked, but he completely misses his header and shoulders it over the bar!
58 mins: Chance for Arsenal! Diouf snoozes, Bellerin has a free run into the area and gets the ball, but Butland saves his low shot and then, at the second attempt, holds it.
57 mins: Another lovely cross to the back post from Oxlade-Chamberlain, but Butland steals this one off Welbeck’s forehead.
55 mins: Another last-ditch sliding tackle from Zouma stops Bellerin crom crossing, at the expense of a corner. This is unaccountably played short, but worked swiftly to the other flank where Oxlade-Chamberlain plays a lovely ball to the far post, from which nothing comes.
52 mins: Diouf and Welbeck race towards a loose ball near the byline, shoulder contacts shoulder, and Diouf bounces about 20 yards to the right. Spectacularly weak defending, but he gets away with it: Welbeck passes to Bellerin, who tries yet another ball over the defence back to Welbeck, who a) can’t reach it, and b) is offside.
50 mins: “One-nil to the rugby team!” sings the home crowd.
GOAL! Stoke 1-0 Arsenal (Jesé, 47 mins)
The home side take the lead two minutes after the break! Jesé picks up the ball on halfway, drives into the Arsenal half, passes to Berahino, who shuffles about, executes a few lollipops and slides it back to the Spaniard, who hits it across goal first-time from 12 yards, and it rolls inside the far post.
46 mins: Stoke get the second half under way, and very quickly translate possession into an Arsenal throw-in.
The players trot back out ahead of the second half. Surely there are goals in this game, but how many, and when?
Half time: Stoke 0-0 Arsenal
Arsenal are totally Arsenalling this game, playing some very nice stuff around, and indeed into, the penalty area, but without a cutting edge. Stoke are wildly inferior, but Jesé and that Shawcross chance give them reason to be optimistic anyway.
45+2 mins: Arsenal lift the ball into the penalty area yet again, and Ramsey runs goalwards while Butland runs out in a race to beat him to it. Butland wins, and what’s more the referee gives him a free kick for no apparent reason.
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there will be two minutes. It starts with Fletcher pumping a free-kick from halfway into the penalty area, but Cech comes out to punch. Soon after Fletcher floats the ball into the area from deep again, and this time Cech catches.
44 mins: Lacazette has been extremely quiet. Stoke have done a very good job on him, which will be a positive for them to cling to when they reflect on how unconvincing their defending of everything else has been.
