Striker ‘changed everything’

MOST of the post-match discussion was, understandably, about Robin van Persie, after the Dutchman’s double undid Stoke and helped Arsenal move up to seventh in the table.

Stoke looked comfortable enough before Van Persie scored twice soon after replacing Marouane Chamakh, and their manager Tony Pulis said: “We looked comfortable until he came on, but he changed the game.

“Asmir [Begovic] hardly had a shot to save before that, and we were relatively untroubled. But he changed everything.”

Arsene Wenger revealed that his captain had been a doubt until the morning of the match after four games in 12 days for both club and country.

“He played twice for Holland and two full games for us, and had muscular tightness.

“I was thinking of having a 19-man squad, and it was only after a medical check this morning that it was okay to put him on the bench. There was a chance he would not have been involved at all.

“But he is an exceptional talent. In the second half we needed to score goals and Van Persie can do that better than many people.”

Wenger was delighted, too with the growing influence of Gervinho, who scored the first goal and set up both of Van Persie’s strikes.

“I feel Gervinho had a massive game and was very influential.

“We looked more solid until Stoke scored — when we switched off.

“Then we became nervous and needed half time to come before we could start playing our football again. We just needed to score the goals, and Robin van Persie does that better than most people.”