Stoke City manager Tony Pulis feels Robin van Persie's influence was the difference as Arsenal rallied to beat his side 3-1 at the Emirates today.
Gervinho opened the scoring for the home side before the half-hour mark before Peter Crouch answered for the visitors but it was van Persie's two goals in the second half which did the damage and Pulis felt he was the man who broke his sides back following another good performance in Europe during the week (3-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv).
"van Persie has come on and changed the game," said Pulis.
"We looked comfortable until he came on, I don't think Asmir had had a shot to save up until then.
"The lads worked hard. We've lost three games this season all on the back of Europa games, but if you look at our running stats they aren't far off when we've been winning games."
