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Gunners draw blank

Arsenal go top after scoreless draw at troublesome Stoke

Stoke 0-0 Arsenal
by Simon Williams
at Stanley Matthews Way

Arsenal returned to the summit of the Premier League following a stalemate with Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium.

The Gunners replaced Leicester City on goal difference after the Foxes had gone top 24 hours earlier following their draw with Aston Villa.

But despite both sides creating a number of good chances, keepers Jack Butland and Petr Cech were in fine form to keep the game goalless.

Stoke went into the game looking for their third consecutive home win in the league, whilst Arsenal were looking to secure a third consecutive league win over their hosts.

However the Gunners’ last win at Stoke was a 3-1 victory in February 2010, a match in which visiting midfielder Aaron Ramsey suffered an horrific leg break.

And it was the Welshman who was involved in the first chance of the game, swinging in a cross for Olivier Giroud that was well defended by Ryan Shawcross.

But the home side soon settled into the game and had a good chance themselves when Ibrahim Afellay’s effort from 25 yards flew just past Cech’s goal.

At the other end Butland did well to save from Giroud after the Frenchman had tried to curl the ball around the keeper having been put through by Joel Campbell.

The England keeper was on hand again moments later to tip over an Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain effort from the edge of the box.

Marko Arnautovic was close to breaking the deadlock just after the half-hour but failed to connect with an excellent Glen Johnson cross. The goal wouldn’t have counted as the linesman had flagged that the Austrian was offside.

Giroud again had a good chance to open the scoring just after the break but his header from a Ramsey corner was kept out by a stunning one-handed save from Butland.

Stoke striker Joselu had an effort blocked by Hector Bellerin before referee Craig Pawson turned down two appeals for penalties by the Gunners after Philipp Wollscheid was adjudged to have impeded both Theo Walcott and Giroud within minutes.

Cech made a fantastic double save just before the hour-mark denying Bojan from 20 yards before clawing away the Spaniard’s effort from the rebound.

Ramsey cleared a Jonathan Walters header off the line from a corner in the dying embers of the game before Cech was on hand again to deny Joselu from 12 yards out.

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