Jese jinxes it for Gunners again
STOKE CITY 1 Jese (47) ARSENAL 0
MARK HUGHES signed another Champions League winner last week and Spaniard Jese scored on his debut to remind Arsene Wenger that a visit to Stoke has too often been his nightmare fixture.
It is not nearly as intimidating to play in the Potteries now as it was in the Tony Pulis days when it was a constant barrage of long throws, high crosses and midfield aggression.
Wenger’s men were often found wanting back then but while it is no longer such a physical test to play at the Bet365 Stadium, the Gunners once again fell short.
Hughes has refined Pulis’s team to an extent that he now has five Champions League winners in his squad – more than any other club in the Premier League.
Three of Hughes Champions League winners started, including Jese, signed on loan this week from PSG who won it twice while he was at Real Madrid.
Two of the others – Xherdan Shaqiri (Bayern Munich), and Darren Fletcher ( Manchester United) – combined to allow Jese to show his quality in the third minute but Cech saved at his feet.
The Gunners had a decent handball shout when the ball struck Erik Pieters’ arm in the Stoke box but Andre Marriner wasn’t interested.
Jack Butland saved low down from Aaron Ramsey, then at Danny Welbeck’s feet before somehow getting in the way of Welbeck’s close- range volley in the 19th minute.
A brilliant solo break by Jese ended with a disappointing shot straight at Cech by another of Stoke’s new boys, Maxim Choupo-Moting.
Butland again prevented Ramsey from opening the scoring when the Welshman sneaked round the back of a sleeping Stoke defence to meet Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s free-kick with a low shot.
For all Arsenal’s pressure and Butland’s heroics, skipper Ryan Shawcross should have given Stoke the lead in the 31st minute when he had a clear header from Choupo- Moting’s cross but sent it over the bar.
When they did break the deadlock
two minutes into the second half, it was a goal that Wenger himself would have been proud of because it had an Arsenal feel to it as Jese picked the ball up in midfield, drew defenders, slipped it to substitute Saido Berahinho and tucked the return pass cleverly past Cech.
Butland impressed again with his lightning reactions from a Kurt Zouma deflection and assured handling from crosses, but Berahino almost stretched Stoke’s lead in the 62nd minute when he headed Pieters’ cross into the ground and Cech made a stunning save.
Arsenal sent on Olivier Giroud, as they chucked everything at Stoke and Alexandre Lacazette was denied an equaliser through a very marginal offside decision in the 72nd minute.
Shawcross and Zouma heroically defended a barrage of Arsenal shots as Stoke were done as an attacking force, but six minutes from the end Pieters seemed to be clipped by Shkodran Mustafi in the box.
There was a final chance for Giroud three minutes into stoppage time but his header from Nacho Monreal’s cross flew just wide as Stoke took all three points.