After an intense match away to Liverpool midweek, Arsenal looked pretty knackered when we eventually rocked up at the Britannia.

Stoke started the better team, as was to be expected, but we eventually managed to kick the ball once or twice and in the end it was pretty evenly matched.

The 0-0 result was mainly down to both goalkeepers, since Butland and Cech pulled off some amazing saves to keep their team in the game.

Petr Cech – 10

I might as well give the goalkeeper full marks considering he didn’t put a foot wrong and made some fantastic saves. One that stood out was a double save in the 57th minute when he denied Joselu and then Bojan.

Hector Bellerin – 6

The defender could do with lifting his crosses a bit. Although he got a few corners, we’d have a far higher chance of scoring if we just got the ball in the box in the first place.

Per Mertesacker – 6

I didn’t particularly notice anything of note from the big guy, which, when it comes to defenders, is usually a good thing.

Laurent Koscielny – 6

As with Per, he didn’t really do much wrong.

Nacho Monreal – 6.5

Another superb match from the Spaniard. In other news: water is wet.

Aaron Ramsey – 5.5

I feel for Rambo because I do think the atmosphere of the Britannia gets to him. It didn’t help that he didn’t have Ozil on the pitch but the midfielder was continuously slopping and wasteful.

Mathieu Flamini – 5

Was he on the pitch?

Joel Campbell – 6.5

The forward made a perfect through ball for Giroud in the first half, which was superbly saved by Butland. He continued to look bright and get in the right positions. Definitely one of our better players.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – 5

Another poor game. Although he wasn’t too bad in the first half, as the game wore on he got worse and worse. If he just stuck to the simple things and stopped overthinking every move, he could be so much better. Very frustrating.

Theo Walcott – 5.5

Not the best match for the forward. At times he got in the right positions but just didn’t do enough.

Olivier Giroud – 6

Although he failed to convert Joel’s pass to him in the first half, the save from Butland was brilliant so you can’t really blame the big guy for that one. Although he didn’t score, his overall play wasn’t bad.

SUBS

Alex Iwobi – 5.5

Although he came on late, the youngster made a huge difference and we instantly looked livelier and more likely to score. It’ll be interesting to see if he gets a start soon.

Calum Chambers – N/A