Arsenal vs Stoke City. 13/11/96

Arsenal (1) 5 - 2 (1) Stoke City

Highbury, 13th November 1996

Coca Cola Cup 3rd round replay

Liverpool beat Charlton so we go to Anfield in 2 weeks for round 4

It'll be a tough week: Tottenham on the Sunday then Liverpool and Newcastle away on the Wednesday and Saturday. And before that we have Man Utd at Old Trafford this Saturday!


Teams
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Keown, Bould, Adams, Winterburn, Platt, 
         Vieira, Merson, Wright, Bergkamp
         Subs: Hartson (Bergkamp 73), Morrow (Vieira 78), Lukic 

Stoke: Muggleton, Pickering, Devlin, Sigurdsson, Whittle,
       Wallace, McMahon, Forsyth, Sheron, Keen, Kavanagh
       Subs: Carruthers (Keen 73), Griffin (McMahon 80), 
             Macari (Pickering 80)

Result : Arsenal               (1) 5   Stoke City              (1) 2
Scorers: Wright 41p,63, Platt 46,      Sheron 35,88
         Bergkamp 68, Merson 73

Bookings:
      
Att     : 33692
Referee : G S Willard (Worthing, W Sussex)

In the end a comfortable victory for Arsenal over a spirited Stoke team which, in the first half, threatened to cause an upset. It took a slightly fortuitous penalty and an early 2nd half goal to get Arsenal going, after the 1st division team had worked hard in the 1st half to deny their supposed superiors space and time. Ultimately though, fired by the irrepressible Ian Wright, the Gunners proved too strong in what eventually turned out to be an entertaining game.

It was the visitors who made the better start. In the first 5 minutes a succession of four corners in a row kept Arsenal pegged back in their own area. There was a scare from one of them when Merson brought down a lobbed cross on the corner of the 6yd box which Seaman should have come to collect comfortably. However, once Merson had taken a touch the keeper was forced to hurriedly hack the ball away, and with Sheron quickly closing him down, was a bit lucky to see the ball cannon back off the striker into the danger area for Adams to clear for another corner.

The Gunners gradually regained their composure though, and began to get more of a grip on possession. With a five man midfield, Stoke were chasing everything and gave Arsenal very little time on the ball and they struggled to create any real threat on goal. Bergkamp did have a nice turn and run to the byline, and his dangerous cross was cleared at full stretch by a defender. From the corner Bould found a bit of space but his header cleared the bar by a couple of feet.

Meanwhile the Potters were showing some neat passing and looked threatening on the break. Vieira gave the ball away on the edge of the Stoke area, it was passed quickly out to Sheron on the half way line and he broke towards the Arsenal goal with two in support and only two defenders ahead of him. He fed Wallace in space in the area on his right, and instead of shooting he squared it across the box. Fortunately Merson was tracking back and cleared it off Kavanagh's toe.

At the other end Arsenal continued to labour, and a spell of pressure ended with Keown lofting a cross from the right to the far post where Merson headed back and the Stoke defence cleared with difficulty. But it was the visitors who stunned Highbury into more than normal silence by taking the lead, albeit with the help of a slice of luck. Another Arsenal attack broke down on the edge of the Stoke area, this time Bould not getting enough weight on a pass to Merson. Kavanagh picked the ball up and broke quickly into the Arsenal half and eventually slipped the ball into the area to try and pick out Sheron's run. Keown seemed to have it covered only to see Vieira make a lunge to try and cut out the pass which succeeded only in defelecting the ball away from Keown and into Sheron's path. With Seaman exposed he finished superbly, confidently chipping past the keeper and into the far corner of the net.

Stung into some sort of action Arsenal came close when Merson chipped forward to pick out Platt's run into the box, but the ex-England captain glanced his header over the bar. Five minutes from time came the penalty decision which helped turn things Arsenal's way. Vieira played a ball from the edge of the box forward to find Bergkamp's run. He had a bit of a wrestling match with the left back Devlin which ended in the Stoke man pulling Bergkamp back by the shoulder. Not unnaturally the Dutchman fell down and the ref really had little option but to award a penalty. Wright duly dispatched the spot kick high into the roof of the net.

The second half was less than a minute old when Arsenal took the lead. Keown spotted Wright's run down the left and knocked the ball forward to allow WWW to beat the offside trap. He took it on to the byline, looked up to spot Platt's run to the far post and delivered the perfect cross which just cleared the keeper and allowed Platt to chest the ball home from a couple of yards.

Stoke still came back, though and had a couple of creditable efforts (by Sheron and Kavanagh) which Seaman had to watch carefully. Indeed the latter, a free kick, he could only palm aside but Adams was in the right place and cleared. They came close again when a cross from the right by McMahon was deflected (by Winterburn?) and looped over Seaman only to bounce back off the crossbar.

However, with the visitors having to push forward, the game opened out a bit and Arsenal began to exploit the extra space. A nice move involving Wright, Merson, Winterburn and Platt eventually moved the ball out to Bergkamp on the right. He half-volleyed a lofted cross to the far post which Muggleton palmed off Wrighty's head for a corner.

>From the corner, in an obviously pre-planned move, Wright stood at the near post but then peeled away to the far post, losing his marker in the process. Merson's kick then picked him out and, with no defenders near him and the keeper stranded, from the six yard line he couldn't miss and headed gleefully into the net.

Stoke then again had a long range effort, this time from Keen which again caused Seaman slight problems, but soon after that Arsenal had made the game safe. Wrighty was again involved, holding the ball up 40 yards from goal before playing a lovely pass round a defender to pick out Bergkamp's run. The Dutch master steadied his aim from the edge of the area, before clinically drilling the ball between Muggleton and his near post.

Five minutes after that it was five. WWW again played a part, spotting Dixon's run down the right and clipping a pass forward. A defender got a touch but couldn't cut it out, which left Dixon free to advance into the area. A poor second touch seemed to have taken the ball too far, but typically he didn't give up, beat a defender to it and cut the ball back into the area. Muggleton got a hand to it, but Merson was following up and produced a shot on the turn which ricocheted between the legs of a defender on the line before trickling into the net.

Evidently with Arsenal's forthcoming schedule in mind, Wenger immediately replaced Bergkamp with Hartson, and soon afterwards, Vieira with Morrow. Hartson almost made Wrighty's hattrick for him, picking up Dixon's ball down the right and crossing low into the middle where WWW had made some space at the near post, but from about 15 yards he flashed a shot a couple of feet wide.

At the other end the Stoke substitute Carruthers was looking lively, and put Sheron through, but he dragged his shot wide. Finally, it was Carruthers again opened up the Arsenal defence, putting another substitute Macari through. His cross took out Seaman and running in at the near post, Sheron calmly knocked the ball into the empty net to give Stoke a deserved consolation.

It was a fairly disappointing Arsenal performance in the first half. Having said that, Stoke deserve some credit for the amount of running and covering they did which denied Arsenal any space in that period. In the end luck was on Arsenal's side though I suspect that Stoke would have inevitably tired in the 2nd half anyway, and the gaps would have appeared even had they not needed to come out of their defensive shell.

Seaman     7.0  Had more work to do than in most recent games, and did 
                well enough, though there were a couple of fumbles from  
                difficult shots.  

Dixon      7.0  Fairly solid game, did well in the end for the last 
                goal, having initially messed up.

Winterburn 7.5  Maintained his recent more confident and competent form.

Adams      7.0  Another good game, including a couple of characteristic
                charges forward.

Bould      7.0  Reasonable game for Bouldy.

Keown      7.5  Again played well. Now looks the most comfortable of the 
                back 3 when going forward.

Platt      6.5  Somewhat improved performance, though there were times 
                in the 1st half when the crowd were starting to get on 
                his back.

Vieira     7.0  Reasonably solid, though less spectacular game. Did give
                the ball away a couple of times in the 1st half, but 
                apparently was told by Wenger to play a bit deeper in 
                the 2nd half and looked better for it.

Merson     7.0  Not a bad game.

Wright     8.0  Struggled to find space in the 1st half, but scored two, 
                made two and had a hand the the 5th, so has to be man of 
                the match.

Bergkamp   7.0  Looking much more like himself than in previous two 
                games.

Hartson    7.0  Looked reasonably sharp on the occasions he saw the 
                ball.

Morrow     6.0  Probably not fair to judge him on 10 minutes.

report by Derek Brownjohn

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