Tagged: Stoke City

From Tony Pulis to tiki-taka: Stoke tap Barcelona for talent | Football | The Guardian

From Tony Pulis to tiki-taka: Stoke tap Barcelona for talent | Football | The Guardian.

Marc Muniesa’s move was strange, Bojan’s stranger still. I don’t think we’ll get used to those two clubs being linked for a little while yet. Good for Stoke though, I think they will trouble some teams next season.

Stoke City evolution under Mark Hughes – ESPN FC

Stoke City evolution under Mark Hughes – ESPN FC.

I’m sure Arsenal fans will continue to bash Stoke City but, man, their evolution has been interesting to watch. I do believe they’ll worry a lot of the big sides this year and continue to improve as they continue to get that Premier League money.

Stoke’s steady evolution under Mark Hughes is the way to do it | Squawka News

Stoke’s steady evolution under Mark Hughes is the way to do it | Squawka News.

Great read here. Credit has to be given to Mark Hughes for the transition and how it’s been implemented. Needless to say, I don’t necessarily want to turn off the TV anymore when seeing Stoke City play. They may just make some more interesting moves in the summer to help them pose an even bigger threat. Should be interesting.

Premier League – Despite fan commonalities football supporters seek the extremes – ESPN FC

Premier League – Despite fan commonalities football supporters seek the extremes – ESPN FC.

Interesting. This idea that we are judged more by who we cheer against than who we cheer for. I think things are different for those who aren’t born in the area or the country their team is stationed. Most of us at least.

Obviously I take delight in a Tottenham loss, Manchester United’s struggles or Chelsea’s unbeaten streak ending etc. but the level of animosity isn’t there. I only really mock friends or family member’s who support different clubs, and they can’t really get to me as I make enough fun of my own Gunners to take away that sting.

I still don’t get this “rivalry” between Arsenal and Stoke City. Pointless from either side. Did Stoke fans have such animosity towards Arsenal before the Aaron Ramsey incident? The author suggests that’s the case but I still don’t see why. Guess, I’ll have to look into that.

I can understand the issues Arsenal fans had after the incident, and I know I couldn’t think of Stoke as nothing but thugs for a little while after that. Don’t care anymore. For one, Ramsey’s back on the pitch and, as shown last season, still has his quality. Also, no offense to Stoke, they don’t compete with us on a global level in terms of recognition or on the pitch(minus last Saturday) in most cases so why waste time on them? Oh, well.

 

Stoke City 3 – 2 Arsenal: Presenting Your Soon-To-Be Title-Winning Arsenal Team, Ladies and Gentlemen

Stoke City. Stoke. City.

3-0. Halftime.

Absolutely shocking.

It’s telling that I was met with a blank video everywhere I went to watch the highlights to refresh myself on that horror show. Seriously, like, a lot of my normal highlight sites wouldn’t work, not even ArsenalPlayer. Maybe Arsenal’s internet guys went around and tried to take down every one they could for a period of time. Maybe it was the universe saying that I didn’t want to re-live that. Or, maybe it was just my Adobe flash acting up. Oh, well.

I did get to see highlights eventually, and it was just as depressing as real life. There’s no point talking about showing character etc in the second half to get back in the game, as that was partly down to Stoke City not playing as hard as they did in the first, and a somewhat fortuitous penalty call.

We weren’t deserving of a point, or anything from that game.

I’ll say this though, I don’t blame the two youngsters, Hector Bellerin and Damian Martinez, for the opening goal. Kieran Gibbs should’ve provided more pressure on the cross and maybe Calum Chambers needs to play with goggles a-la Edgar Davids to see that the ball was inches above where he actually put his head. Bellerin slipped, a human thing which I would have forgiven any other player for, and Martinez had no chance once all that transpired.

I left Chambers out of the youngsters group as he’s basically a senior member of the squad given there’s not many other options available, and he’s going to continue to be involved a lot more than he probably should during this season.

I think replacing Bellerin at half-time will be a major knock to the young man’s confidence by the way Arsene Wenger. It’s not his f&##&%g fault you failed to buy players then also chose to rest Laurent Koscielny for this game. I’m glad you kept Olivier Giroud on as well. You know, because his slow as molasses play, which was made even slower by the fact that he’s still far from full fitness, didn’t help. And let’s not talk about the chance he missed.

I do understand the tactical decision-making in that respect. Our biggest, strongest forward to match up with Stoke’s big boys but he wasn’t ready for that and it showed.

What happened in the first goal is no excuse for the crap show that followed. Another free cross to a free Bojan Krkic who must have thought he was playing against Almeria and not Arsenal was inexplicable, and five defenders heading for one ball on a corner was Sunday League stuff.(I’ll have to remember to caution my own teammates today).

Elsewhere, Aaron Ramsey got back among the goals along with Santi Cazorla but the individual performances all over the pitch were still weak. Let’s not forget Lukas Podolski still not seeming to care too much that Wenger’s trying to provide him meaningless minutes, and Joel Campbell probably wanted to put back on his tracksuit after having to wait so long to get on. Still see them both leaving.

Danny Welbeck came on and almost scored while Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain looked lively but ultimately it wasn’t our day. Alexis Sanchez was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet with his wonderful run but was again less effective than before. Probably because he’s tired. He’s supposedly being rested against Galatasaray.

That’s a good thing since we have a resurgent Newcastle coming to visit next weekend before a week to prepare for a match of two under-performing teams when we travel to Liverpool.

All part of the title plans I assume.

Until next time.

Player Focus: Has Bojan Finally Found a Home from Home at Stoke?

Player Focus: Has Bojan Finally Found a Home from Home at Stoke?.

Only time will tell. To be fair, I’ve not seen much of Bojan at Stoke besides highlights but the suggestion from Jonathan Wilson here is that he’s finally starting to adjust to the Premier League.

The first news about that transfer definitely sounded like something you only see in FIFA or Football Manager but it’s the real deal, and will be interesting to watch. I still don’t get what happened with Bojan at Barcelona, as well as his wandering adventures in the Serie A(with Roma and Milan) and the Eredivisie(with Ajax).

His time at Ajax was particularly disappointing. If the reason is that Bojan is more of a system player, having been bred at Barcelona, then why didn’t he succeed at the one other team that plays in s similar fashion?

It will be strange if Stoke is the place where his potential is realized but it has to happen somewhere, and he really should be pressing on at 24. We’ll see what happens.