Poor performance all round really, only Sol Campbell looked decent in my opinion, which is a good sign. The team Arsene picked was one that would arouse anger amongst Arsenal (I am the alliteration king) fans at the end of the game, although the game could have gone either way, and if we had won then the fans complaining would be praising Arsene.
The team he put out was a mixture of youth and experience, mainly the former, with veterans Mikael Silvestre and Sol Campbell lining up alonside the likes of Francis Coquelin and Craig Eastmond. The bench was similar, with Eduardo, Rosicky, Arshavin and Ramsey the big guns who were ready to come on if needed, and the youngsters like Kyle Bartley and Emmanuel Frimpong who would probably be called upon if we were comfortable.
The game started out horribly - not only did we barely get a touch of the ball to start with, but we were a goal down within 70 seconds. A long throw into the area courtesy of Rory Delap looked to be heading for the hands of Lukaszc Fabianski, but as the Pole waited for the ball to drop into his arms instead of coming for it, Ricardo Fuller stooped in front of him and nodded the ball into the top corner via the crossbar. Not the best of starts by any means...
Most of the rest of the first half was poor from us. Nobody really stood out, with the likes of Jay-Emmanuel Thomas and Francis Coquelin starting quite nervously. Cesc Fabregas wasn't getting the space, or the ball for that matter, enough to dictate the game, and we were playing some pretty pointless stuff. Barely a single opportunity arose until our goal, but Stoke had a good shout for a penalty turned down, when Fuller elected to try and keep his footing after stumbling under a clumsy challenge by Silvestre just inside the area. The referee dismissed it, and if Fuller had gone down it would probably have been given, so fair play to him.
Our goal came just before half time, when Dean Whitehead clearly handled on the left corner of the area. Fathead protested his innocence, claiming the ball struck his chest, though replays showed otherwise. The commentators continued Fathead's moaning, while Cesc tricked Stoke by playing the ball across the box for Denilson to strike first time into the bottom corner, via a deflection or possibly even two, and with that it was 1-1, and soon enough half time.
The second half wasn't much better in our point of view. After a bit of fruitless pressing, Stoke counterattacked down the right wing in a two-on-three situation. Silvestre seemed to stop for a split-second while chasing Sidibe, which allowed him an extra yard or so. He crossed the ball in for Fuller, who'd spun away from Sol, and he nodded in past Fabianski with ease. Good goal to be fair.
Soon it was 3, when Matthew Etherington crossed low for Fathead, who might have been offside, and he tapped in to make it 3. It would have been 4 but for a handball call from the lino, when Tuncay controlled with his hand before firing in. Out of the FA Cup, but at least my Manchester United and Liverpool supporting mates can't give me any stick seeing as they both lost easier games in the 3rd round. However, they still gave me grief today.