I said in my yesterday morning comment that Stoke had the home advantage, and could beat us on the day, and so it proved. Of course it didn’t help that we have not won there for some considerable time, and i felt Stoke actually believed they could out muscle us as the surly did.

When looking to see where we went wrong, i don’t think you have to look further than the injury list to see where our weaknesses are. Many supporters are claiming that the manager is at fault because he didn’t buy more players in the transfer window, maybe there is a bit of credibility there, but i feel that when we look at who was not available, the transfer window is grasping at straws,

Many are now saying that Martinez was at fault and they now want TPIG back between the sticks , Personally i felt Martinez made one mistake all afternoon, when a fierce swerving shot went straight at him, it hit his mid drift and he struggled to grasp it but a goal never resulted. His cover let him down on all their goals and in my opinion he wasn’t at fault for any of them.

Koshielney Debuchy Arteta Wilshere Walcott Diaby Ozil Szezesney Ospina Monreal all out injured, Hardly the managers fault, that all these players are all out at the same time.

We can all find reasons why we should have defended better, or why our forwards miss what looks like easy chances, but we all have to admit, that having the injuries we have would certainly stop any team from playing consistent football. I believe the best Manager in the world would struggle with an injury list the same as ours.

Many are moaning that Jenks was loaned out now that we need a right back, but that is nonsense as we brought in Chambers for Jenks which allowed Jenks to get the Premier league experience which we all said he needed. We also brought Debuchey who looked to be a fine replacement for Sagna but of course injury halted him.

Now you know as well as me, that Chambers was never intended to be used every game of the season, Belerin also was supposed to only be used in cup games, but again injuries to first team players has resulted in being forced to use learning players.

Ramsey as we can see, has had a lack of form since he came back from injury, Wenger could never had predicted that, and with Ozil out and Arteta as well we have been forced to suffer Ramsey’s form, its not as if we have Wilshere to bulk up the midfield as he has long term injury as well.

Wenger must have believed that Diaby would have been playing by now as he has had a complete season out, but his half a game resulted in him picking up another injury. By this time in the season any manager would have expected to have most of his players to pick from, but as we know our players are rolling over in every game, but that is not because Wenger never brought in the transfer window.

It is quite evident to me that Koshielney is a key player for us, when he is not in place BFG has nightmares and of course the depleted team always need a reshuffle where our players are asked to play cover positions. We can only buy certain amounts of players in any window most teams are the same, but of course most teams do not have our injury problems.

At the end of the day we wanted Marquee players top quality Talent. We all know the restrictions we have been under for quite some years, but now we are buying players, but as i said we can still only buy what’s available on the market..

Wenger has stated that he believes we can win the league in the next three years. Had all our players been available since the start of the season, we could have won it this year, No ones fault Just fate that’s all, some thing we have had problems with for some time, but don’t be mistaken, we have the players now to win the league and possibly the Champions league as well ,but the secret is getting them all fit and Playing.

written by Steve P.

This is Rasp’s rant published earlier …..

Arsenal don’t plan to fail …. We fail to plan

I couldn’t get a stream to watch the game and so had to follow via BBC sport and blogsites – therefore I cannot comment on the specifics of the performance.

There are reports of poor refereeing, of Stoke getting away with wrestling our players to the ground, of us being outmuscled and of Arsenal getting soft yellows and a red whilst Stoke indulged in orchestrated rotational fouling that went largely unpunished …….. No s**t Sherlock!

If we don’t know by now what to expect from a game against Stoke then we may as well give up and try another sport. We play in the English Premier League, this type of ‘battling game’ is what makes it popular worldwide.

Arsene has to stop trying to be King Canute in domestic games, employ a bit of pragmatism and build a team that can stand up to the Stokes of this world.

As Rocky observed last night, the foundations of yesterday’s embarrassing defeat were laid when we failed to bring in defensive reinforcements in the summer and then failed to prepare a team for Stoke’s all too predictable onslaught yesterday.

Rasp