Robin Van Persie wasn't in Stoke yesterday and yet his presence was keenly felt.
The Dutchman decamped to Manchester United in a high-profile move on the eve of the new Barclays Premier League campaign and Arsenal have spent the first two weeks highlighting the range of attacking traits he took with him.
They have done so by failing to show any themselves; this soporific goalless stalemate at the Britannia Stadium their second draw in a row. The most galling outcome of the match, though, was how inert the London club were going forward. They struggled to score yesterday and have yet to do so this season.
The departure of van Persie so close to the start of the campaign allows for a certain degree of disruption, but none of either Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud or Gervinho were able to breach Stoke's defence. That seemed a little disconcerting given how ably Santi Cazorla controlled midfield and funnelled possession to his strikers.
"Offensively we still have some work to do because we missed a bit of accuracy in the final third in our movement and in our passing," said Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager. "There's something missing but I still think we should have won the game 1-0. I believe we have the potential but you can see as well that something is missing. They're not spontaneous enough in some situations."
While Arsenal were left to contend with half-chances – Podolski had a shot from range blocked and Giroud blazed over with another – Stoke were able to find the net through Jon Walters. However, the Stoke forward had strayed offside before lifting a shot over Vito Mannone's head.
Tony Pulis, the Stoke manager, was satisfied with the result afterwards despite a failure to pose more of a threat. "I thought we were disappointing going forward. I thought we could do better than that," said Pulis, who expects to complete the signing of Maurice Edu from Rangers today.
"We looked unbalanced without Matty [Etherington] on the left hand side but the attitude of the players and the commitment of the players was absolutely first class. We must never ever become blase about taking a point off one of the top teams in Europe."
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