Arsenal sunk by bottle of Walters

Stoke 1 Arsenal 0

Were you to rank Premier League forwards on bottle then Stoke’s Ireland international would even outdo Wayne Rooney or Luis Suarez.

When referee Mike Jones pointed to the spot with 14 minutes left Walters, who had missed four of his previous six penalties, is the last man the home hordes would have wanted to volunteer.

Yet the fact Walters was even in a position to rack up that sorry statistic tells you all you need to know about him. This time there was a happy ending for the former Ipswich player, though, as the Gunners made the worst possible start to a March month manager Arsene Wenger had claimed in the build-up would define their season.

“I was more than happy to take it,” Walters said. “Charlie Adam took the last one and scored it. I thought he was still on the pitch, but he had been substituted! I did look round for him first, but I was happy to step up and take it and I was glad to see the net bulge.

“I kept calm. You’ve got to keep a cool head, not panic in those situations and know what you’re going to do with it. There’s pressure, but you’ve got to take the highs and the lows.”

Chelsea’s victory at Fulham meant the Gunners now trail Jose Mourinho’s team by four points.

And Wenger’s side could have few complaints with the outcome after serving up a sub-standard display.

This might not have been a result which created shockwaves the size of Arsenal’ s recent 6-1 demolition by Liverpool, yet it was just as damaging.

The Gunners have lost the momentum they enjoyed in the first half of the campaign and, while the title battle still looks a three-horse race, their place looks to have been taken by Brendan Rodgers’ team, who have now moved above them courtesy of their superior goal difference.

Then there is Manchester City, two points adrift of the Gunners but with two games in hand. Those all-too familiar decisions not to significantly strengthen in January look more bewildering by the week.

Arsenal host Everton in the FA Cup on Saturday, before attempting to overhaul a 2-0 deficit at Bayern Munich in the second leg of the Champions League last 16 stage.

Then comes a daunting run of league meetings with Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester City.

Midfielder Jack Wilshere’s attempts to put a positive spin on matters failed to fully convince on the back of a display which lacked the usual penetrative passing of earlier in the campaign.

“The good thing is that this month we play all the teams at the top,” he said. “That’s a good thing. If we win those games we can be up there.

“We’ve got to keep going to the end. Anything can happen in this league as you’ve seen today and in previous weeks, so we have to keep going.”

It might have been Mark Hughes rather than Tony Pulis in the Potters dug-out but there remained needle aplenty, as has traditionally been the case between these two sides.

Glenn Whelan and Charlie Adam both escaped without sanction from referee Mike Jones despite controversial challenges bordering on stamps on Olivier Giroud.

Peter Crouch posed the biggest threat at either end, though, and the towering striker could count himself unlucky when his angled header was superbly tipped wide by Wojciech Szczesny.

Eventually the Potters’ chance came when Laurent Koscielny clumsily handled as Walters attempted to lift the ball over him. Walters then sent Szczesny the wrong way his spot kick.

It sparked the visitors into action and they wasted a fine chance deep into five minutes of added time when Yaya Sanogo fired over the crossbar from fellow substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s cross.

Wenger cut a concerned figure, yet he is not yet ready to throw in the towel.

He said: “The FA Cup is important because it is our next game but you do not fight the whole way and throw the championship away just because you want to play the FA Cup. Saturday was a big game. We fight since the beginning of the season to be in that position.

“We cannot say it’s easy to claw back. It is difficult, but I expected Chelsea to win at Fulham.”

STOKE CITY (4-2-3-1): Begovic 7; Cameron 7, Wilson 7, Shawcross 7, Pieters 7; Nzonzi 7, Whelan 7; Adam 8 (Ireland 73), Walters 8, Arnautovic 8 (Etherington 88); Crouch 7.

ARSENAL (4-5-1): Szczesny 6; Sagna 6, Mertesacker 6, Koscielny 5, Gibbs 6; Arteta 6, Wilshere 5 (Sanogo 81), Rosicky 6 (Oxlade-Chamberlain 74), Cazorla 5, Podolski 5 (Ozil 66, 5); Giroud 5.

Referee: Michael Jones.