My days these days is so typically boring. Working 7pm to 4am is tough on you. Let’s see what happens in a typical work day.
I leave the office at 4am (yes starting off from here since that is the earliest part of the day for me in reverse order) and book my cab to take me home. I usually chat on Whatsapp with a couple of people from the same office on my way back. The drive takes about 20 minutes or so and add about 10 minutes for me to get from the 5th floor to where I keep my bag, take a leak in the washroom and go get my phone from the locker.
I usually reach home by 4:30 am and I unlock my door and get to my bedroom. I change clothes and switch on my laptop and get into bed. I usually will continue to chat and will watch an episode of whatever show I happen to be watching during these days and fall asleep usually by 5:15 am. I wake up just before 11 am and I brush my teeth, wash my face and get a strong, hot coffee. I will have lunch (no breakfast) by around 12:15-12:30 pm and am usually online till about 1:30 pm and then I will check to see if there are tv show episodes I have yet to watch from new shows or if there is a movie that I want to see.
Then I lie in bed again and watch stuff until 4:20 pm when I get up and go get more coffee and maybe some biscuits or something. By 5pm I go to the loo, then shave and shower and start to get ready. By 6:15 pm I am usually in an Uber headed to the office. By 7pm I am at my system and start the work for the day. By 8:30 pm or 9pm I go get dinner and then more work, attend conference calls or whatever I need to do during the work day. A break or two for coffee and it all begins again at 4 am.
An awesome burger from Mash 24, a nice new restaurant. The Texas burger comes with a beef patty, cheese, chicken sausages, fried egg and caramelized onions in a special sauce. French fries as sides and I had a Banana-Strawberry shaky (milkshake).
The Green Inferno is a 2013 American splatter cannibal horror film directed by Eli Roth. The film was inspired by and is a homage to Italian cannibal films of the late 1970s and early ’80s “cannibal boom”, including Cannibal Holocaust (1980), which features a film-within-a-film titled The Green Inferno. Among the cast are Lorenza Isso, Magda Apanowicz & Ariel Levy.
Our leading lady Justine who is a freshman in college, joins an activist group led by Alejandro and his girlfriend, Kara mainly because she is challenged by him and seemingly has an initial attraction for him. The group plans a trip to the Amazon rainforest to stop a company from logging and obliterating ancient native tribes there; the goal is to film the logging crews with cell phones and stream footage to raise awareness. Justine, whose father is an attorney for the United Nations, suggests she could bring attention to the issue through her father. The operation is funded by a drug dealer named Carlos, who takes the group of students to Peru via plane.
They arrive in the Amazon and head to a logging site where they begin their protest, chaining themselves to bulldozers while filming the loggers cutting down trees. The logger’s private militia then arrives on the scene, but cannot seem to break open the chains to get them away from the logging site. The protest receives viral attention on the internet when Justine is almost shot dead by one of the militia officers. The group is then arrested, but Carlos pays the police to let them go. Justine then realizes that she was a pawn: if things went badly, nobody would kill the daughter of a UN attorney. As the plane leaves, it crashes into the forest, resulting in the death of Carlos. And that’s when the shot really hits the fan. The survivors (another one accidentally is killed when he dazed and confused walks into the spinning propellers. Justine, Alejandro, Kara, Jonah, Lars, Amy, Samantha, and Daniel, the only survivours are captured by villagers, knocked out by darts dipped in a tranquilizer, who are painted in red and look really savage. While the others are imprisoned in a bamboo cage, Jonah is led onto a rock slab, tied up and the village shaman lady cuts off his eyeballs and tongue and eats it and then his head is cut off and the villagers cut the rest of him up and cook and eat him.
These were the same villagers that the group were trying to save from the loggers! Alejandro later tells the group that the mission to save the tribe was a fake, and that he had been paid by Carlos to do it, who owned a rival logging company. After Amy has a hilarious bout of diarrhea in front of the others, Samantha attempts to escape, but she is darted and the group then finds out that they’re being watched by a watchman. The 3 ladies are ordered out tested with a sharpened instrument, and Justine is revealed to be a virgin. She is then taken away, and prepared for a genital mutilation ceremony. Samantha then escapes after the watchman is distracted by a ringing phone and we see her run upto the river and hide in a canoe. The next day the group is given scraps of pork meat in bowls, and Amy after eating sees that a piece of skin at the bottom of her bowl, bearing one of Samantha’s tattoos. She then realizes that Samantha was recaptured and killed, and that she just ate her girlfriend. She then smashes her bowl and uses a shard to cut her throat and commit suicide. Lars then puts a sack of marijuana that Carlos gave him down Amy’s throat, hoping that will make the tribe sick if they eat her. Eventually, Justine and Daniel escape, leaving Alejandro (for lying) and Lars (who Alejandro knocks out, out of anger) behind. Lars later wakes up, but the tribe then eats him alive.
Daniel and Justine reach the plane but are caught and brought back. Daniel is tied to a pole and has his legs broken, covered in a green powder and is fed to ants while Justine is prepared for the ceremony. Logging machinery attracts the tribe to the jungle; the distraction allows Justine to escape with the help of a child sympathizer. Justine sees a dying Daniel and he begs her to kill him. Justine can’t do it so the child kills him and takes her to the river where she escapes two villagers who chase her and avoids a jaguar and runs into the logging team. Using a phone she took from the crash site to pretend to film the fight, so the militia would stop firing on the natives. Justine is then taken home to safety, by one of the loggers’ helicopters. Back in New York, she lies to her father and the UN, telling them she was the only survivor of the crash and that the tribe was friendly to her. That night, Justine has a nightmare that Alejandro comes back from the jungle. The next morning, she sees that Alejandro’s face on shirts is being used to promote further activism on campus by those unaware of his manipulations.
More like an exploitation film, with certain degree of racist theme abound in the film it still does have enough entertainment value for those who like gore and blood and torture. It doesn’t have anything original at all though and is more like a homage film. 6 outta 10!
Zsa Zsa Gabor, the Hungarian actress whose self-parodying glamour and revolving-door marriages to millionaires put a luster of American celebrity on a long but only modestly successful career in movies and television, died on Sunday in Los Angeles. She was 99. Gabor began her stage career in Vienna and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a sought-after actress with “European flair and style,” with a personality that “exuded charm and grace.” Her first film role was a supporting role in Lovely to Look At. She later acted in We’re Not Married! and played one of her few leading roles in Moulin Rouge (1952), directed by John Huston, who described her as a “creditable” actress.
Married at least eight times, calling everyone “Dahlink,” flaunting a diamonds-and-furs lifestyle and abetted by gossip columnists and tabloid headline writers, Ms. Gabor played the coifed platinum femme fatale in plunging necklines in dozens of film and television roles, many of them cameos as herself. Outside of her acting career, Gabor was best known for her extravagant Hollywood lifestyle, glamorous personality, and her many marriages, having had nine husbands, including hotel magnate Conrad Hilton and actor George Sanders. She once stated, “Men have always liked me and I have always liked men. But I like a mannish man, a man who knows how to talk to and treat a woman – not just a man with muscles.” Gabor’s divorces inspired her to make numerous quotable puns and innuendos about her marital (and extramarital) history. She commented: “I am a marvelous housekeeper: Every time I leave a man I keep his house.” When asked, “How many husbands have you had?”, she was quoted as responding, “You mean other than my own?”Gabor later claimed to have had a sexual encounter with her stepson, Nicky.
Ms. Gabor had been in and out of hospitals for years. She suffered head and other injuries and was hospitalized for a month in 2002 after a car driven by her hairdresser struck a utility pole in West Hollywood. It left her in a wheelchair, and she retreated from the spotlight. She suffered a stroke in 2005 and had surgery for a blocked carotid artery. In 2007, she again underwent surgery to treat a leg infection and aftereffects of the stroke. In July 2010, she underwent hip-replacement surgery after a fall at her home in which she also suffered a concussion. Released from the hospital in August, she was readmitted two days later for treatment of unspecified complications. In January 2011, her right leg was amputated above the knee after an infection proved resistant to antibiotics. Doctors said the operation was necessary to save her life. Gabor died of a heart attack at her home in Bel-Air, Los Angeles, on December 18, 2016, aged 99. She had been on life support for the previous five years.[62]
She is survived by husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, whom she wed in 1986, and the union garnered her the title Princess von Anhalt, Duchess of Saxony.
Sleep is one-third of our lives: write a post about it. Do you love naps? Have trouble falling alseep? Wish you could remember your dreams? Remember something especially vivid? Snuggle under a blanket, or throw the windows wide open? Meditate on sleep.
I’m not really a nap guy. I average about 5 t0 6 hours a day with perhaps 6-8 on a weekday if I am lucky. Working till the wee hours of the morning does not do great things for your sleep. However I used to sleep during the afternoons until a few years ago but I felt that unless I am really tired or lacking sleep or I am ill, it’s not a good thing to sleep in the afternoons at home.
Some nights I have trouble getting to sleep. I tend to think way too much and hence my brain gets too active when I lie down to sleep. I find that difficult to get over so I watch a tv show or something until I fall asleep or about to fall asleep so that I don’t over think too much and end up staying up too late. I guess it stems from an active imagination and loneliness or atleast that’s what it seems like to me. And I dream a lot, most of which I never remember an hour or so after I wake up but some stay with me for a long time. I like to be between the sheets, completely covered. I can’t sleep without a sheet over me.
And due to mosquitoes I always keep the windows closed. No way that I am keeping them open.
I haven’t watched that many horror films this year I guess. Last year too. Lights Out is a 2016 American supernatural horror film directed by David F. Sandberg in his major directorial debut, produced by Lawrence Grey, James Wan and Eric Heisserer and written by Heisserer. It stars Teresa Palmer, Gabriel Bateman, Alexander DiPersia, Billy Burke and Maria Bello.
Here is the story, Sophie the mom in the film, was in an institution when she was a child and met and befriend another girl named Diana who had an unusual condition that made her skin photosensitive. The doctors there did some odd experimental treatment with lights that seemingly killed her (burned her out or something) when she was exposed to a bright light. However Diana still lives on and is in the shadows and is only seen as a silhouette in the dark. Her friendship with Sophie is what is keeping her here in this world and she latches onto her and controls certain aspects of her life. She causes Sophie’s first husband to leave and scares the older daughter Rebecca so much that it brought about a rift between mother and daughter.
Sophie remarries and has a son named Martin but Rebecca leaves once she is old enough. Martin comes to Rebecca saying that he is scared. His dad was killed by Diana while he was at work and Rebecca takes him in so he can sleep without being in fear of Diana, which Rebecca thinks is just in their mother’s mind. But soon she changes her position when she is attacked by Diana first at her apartment and then in their house. Rebecca confronts Sophie about Diana but she denies the accusations. Rebecca, her boyfriend Bret and Martin decide to stay overnight to protect her. Rebecca goes to her bedroom to reconcile; however, Sophie secretly passes her a note saying “I need help” before Diana tugs her back in. Rebecca realizes that she is being controlled and turns on all the lights in the house to keep her away.
Diana traps Martin & Rebecca and Bret runs out to get the cops who last a few minutes before they too are killed. Rebecca realizes that using blacklight can allow them to see Diana and discovers scrawled writings along the wall, explaining how Diana won’t let anyone “take” Sophie and that she killed Rebecca’s father. Rebecca sends Martin to Bret and goes back to rescue Sophie. Diana then attacks Rebecca violently, but Sophie confronts her with a gun, realizing she’s Diana’s tether to the world. She then commits suicide by shooting herself which makes Diana disappear. Distraught, Rebecca, Martin and Bret reconcile and vow to stay together as the cops and ambulance are at the scene.
Boring and not scary at all. It’s just about average with an unexciting premise and boring storyline. Only thing I liked about the movie is Teresa Palmer who I think is a doll. 6 outta 10!
Does it ever make sense to judge a book by its cover — literally or metaphorically? Tell us about a time you did, and whether that was a good decision or not.
Sometimes yes. I know people will say that you can’t and it’s true for the most part. But I think as you gain experience and wisdom over the years a few things stick out. You will be able to point out certain things that stand out and you can say with a good degree of certainity what you can judge about this person or that.
Some cases you may get things incorrect but for the most part it isn’t that difficult. It’s not rocket science. I find myself getting it right over and over again, but mostly in the last 10 years or so. Ever since I turned 30 back in 2006. So I guess it can be seen as a loss of positiveness, naivety, innocence and I guess you could argue about that point but overall it’s gonna be good that you lose some of it.
Now what about books? It depends on the cover and sometimes I can pull up a book from the shelves in a library or book store and I know what I am in for if I were to choose it. Sometimes you can get surprised.
Now for a ship or shuttle I must say that is so awesome, unique and iconic that it could have an entire show based around it. I am talking about the Delta Flyer. The Delta Flyer was a specially designed Starfleet shuttlecraft constructed by the crew of the USS Voyager in the Delta Quadrant in 2375. The vessel was designed to handle environments that would be too hazardous for a standard shuttlecraft and to be slightly larger than the average shuttle, the crew having acknowledged that standard shuttles were of little use in the increasingly hostile and unexplored Delta Quadrant.
The vessel was a blend of Starfleet and Borg technology, designed in collaboration between B’Elanna Torres, Tom Paris, Tuvok, Harry Kim, and Seven of Nine. It featured a warp-streamlined tetraburnium alloy hull, retractable warp nacelles, parametallic hull plating, unimatrix shielding, and a Borg-inspired weapon system, including photonic missiles, most of which were Paris’ conceptions. For aesthetic reasons, Paris designed some of the flight controls to resemble those from the holodeck simulation of Captain Proton; when Tuvok complained, Paris explained that he wanted to feel the ship and that he was tired of tapping panels. But to Paris’ disappointment, the addition of dynametric tailfins was denied by Tuvok. Instead of having the usual two pilot stations, it had several command stations.
The idea to design a larger, more efficient shuttle than the cramped class 2 shuttle was first given to the Delta Flyer’s designer, Lieutenant junior grade Tom Paris, by the former Borg drone Seven of Nine in 2375. Captain Janeway later authorized the craft’s construction, which was led by Paris, in order to retrieve a multispatial probe that was lost in the atmosphere of a gas giant and in danger of being stolen by the Malon. The Malon began work on a shuttlecraft also, and finished theirs before the Flyer was complete. When the Malon sent out their shuttle, the Flyer was deployed early, despite a flaw in the vessel’s structural integrity. The Flyer was successful in retrieving the probe, but a hull breach started to occur. B’Elanna Torres designed a makeshift device that deployed a temporary force field, successfully containing the breach.
The Delta Flyer’s second mission was to infiltrate a Species 8472 terrasphere. Paris, Kim, and Chakotay took the Flyer out to investigate the terrasphere. When the undercover Chakotay was revealed, Voyager rendezvoused with the Delta Flyer. The Delta Flyer encountered near-destruction in its third mission when it got caught in an ion storm and crash landed three kilometers under rock on a class M planet. Life support began to fail and Paris, Samantha Wildman, and Tuvok did not believe they could be rescued. The Voyager crew was able to dig through the rock and locate the Delta Flyer. The crew and the Flyer were beamed aboard. In early 2375, Voyager was equipped with a quantum slipstream drive and used it in an attempt to return to the Alpha Quadrant. The Flyer, piloted by Chakotay and Kim, rode the slipstream ahead of Voyager in order to chart the slipstream and send appropriate phase corrections to Voyager. Unfortunately, the drive proved unstable and nearly caused Voyager to lose structural integrity. Fortunately, a Harry Kim from an alternate timeline where the ship had been destroyed, was able to transmit a phase correction directly to Seven of Nine’s Borg implants which shut the drive down. Use of the drive was then abandoned until it could be better understood.
A few months later, the Delta Flyer was used to go underwater on The Waters of the Moneans. The Flyer was able to take large amounts of stress, entering great depths of water. It was even able to reach the core of the ocean which was quite deep underwater. This core was actually a large containment field generator. During a mission where Voyager crew stole a Borg transwarp coil, Seven of Nine was captured by the Borg. The coil was installed on board the Delta Flyer, for which it was used to proceed to the unicomplex to retrieve Seven. When Kathryn Janeway beamed into the complex, she was stuck there with Seven when the Borg Queen activated a dispersal field. Seven was able to disable the Queen’s interface to the collective and the field was deactivated. With Janeway and Seven retrieved, the Flyer proceeded back to transwarp and returned to Voyager, pursued by the Queen’s diamond; they were briefly forced to transfer power from life support to the shields during the pursuit to give themselves the necessary shield strength to reach the exit point before they were captured.
When Voyager encountered a graviton ellipse, the Delta Flyer was sent in to locate the Ares IV command module, which was lost in the ellipse in 2032. The crew of Tom Paris, Chakotay, and Seven of Nine examined several artifacts trapped in the ellipse before finding the command module. While the Flyer attempted to tractor the module out of the ellipse, the ellipse was hit by a dark matter asteroid. The Delta Flyer was severely damaged and Chakotay was injured. Aboard Voyager, B’Elanna Torres devised a method to use an ion distributor from the Ares IV to repair vital components of the Flyer. Seven beamed to the Ares IV module where she located the distributor and downloaded the sensor data and logs of the Ares IV commander, John Kelly. She returned to the Flyer with the distributor and Kelly’s body. The distributor was connected to the Flyer power systems and the shuttle was able to escape before the ellipse returned to subspace. During a period of shore leave on Voyager, Janeway took the Flyer to a nearby planet in the Norcadian star system. When Seven and Tuvok were kidnapped by Penk, Voyager engaged in battle with his vessel. Penk was able to disable Voyager, but Janeway arrived in the Flyer and was able to disable Penk’s signal antenna, forcing Penk to lower power to his ship’s force fields. This allowed Seven and Tuvok, along with several other competitors held hostage aboard the ship, to be rescued. Janeway and the Flyer returned to Voyager.
Well there’s more info about the Delta Flyer so I guess I will save it for the closer look post & video. Anyways I hope you like the photos and here is the unboxing video.
Another year is coming to a close. And how quickly has it passed us by. Atleast for me it has seemed liked it. One minute it’s March and the next it’s late July and then December all of a sudden. I dunno but to me it feels like 2016 has gone on by quite quickly. I wonder if it is because of my work time shift from 4:30 pm – 1:30 am to a 7pm to 4 am shift. This means that I sleep a lot more during the day and hence have less time for myself during the work week and I usually use Saturdays to sleep in a bit, perhaps a big nap in the afternoon and go out on Sunday.
This might be what is giving me a feeling of the days going by quickly. Especially the last two months have gone by in the blink of an eye. This year has had a lot of famous people dying (I’m still here though) and a lot of negativity and more doom and gloom than what people in a year should be used to. Social Media frenzy, lack of etiquette and decency all sorts of shit going down is to blame. Oh and in India we also got demonetization in a large scale effort to combat black money, corruption and terrorism! What a load of a mess that turned out to be.
Well I am surprised at the quickness of it all. 2016, can’t say that I will miss you that much but boy did you fly by quickly.
Actor Alan Thicke has died at the age of 69. Thicke, known for his role as the likable father on the ABC television series Growing Pains, died from a heart attack on Tuesday. His son, Grammy award nominated-singer Robin Thicke paid tribute to him on Tuesday evening, calling him the ‘greatest man I ever met’ and ‘always a gentleman.’ Robin Thicke told The Los Angeles Times his father was playing hockey with his brother, 19-year-old Carter, when he suffered a heart attack. Alan Thicke and Carter had reportedly been at the Pickwick Ice skating rink in Burbank at the time.
Thicke was born in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada, the son of Shirley “Joan” Isobel Marie (née Greer), a nurse, and William Jeffery, a stockbroker. They divorced in 1953. His mother remarried to Brian Thicke, a physician, and they moved to Elliot Lake. Thicke hosted a Canadian game show on CFCF-TV in Montreal called First Impressions in the late 1970s[6] and the Saturday morning celebrity game show Animal Crack-Ups in the late 1980s. In 1997, he hosted a television version of the board game Pictionary. In the early 2000s, he hosted the All New 3’s a Crowd on the Game Show Network. Thicke had a successful career as a TV theme song composer, often collaborating with his then-wife Gloria Loring on these projects, which included the themes to the popular sitcoms Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life. Thicke played Jason Seaver, a psychiatrist and father, on the family sitcom Growing Pains. When the show began, Jason was moving his psychiatry practice into the home to be closer to the family’s children while the family matriarch Maggie, played by Joanna Kerns, resumed her career as a reporter. Growing Pains debuted on ABC in 1985 and ran until 1992.
Thicke was married three times: His first marriage, to Days of Our Lives actress Gloria Loring, lasted from 1970 until around 1984; they had two sons, Brennan and Robin. He started dating actress Kristy Swanson when she was 17 years old in 1986 and got engaged to her two years later when he was 42. He married his second wife, Miss World 1990 Gina Tolleson, on August 13, 1994, and had a son, Carter William Thicke, before their divorce was finalized on September 29, 1999. In 1999, he met Tanya Callau in Miami, where he was a celebrity host and she was a model. They were married from 2005 until his death.
You are the first astronaut to arrive on a new, uncharted planet. Write the note that you leave to those who come after you.
It’s one small step for Roshan, one giant freakin’ leap for humankind. My ultimate dream is to fly in space or travel through space and visit various alien planets, moons and asteroids go through all the planetary systems in different star clusters across this galaxy and the others. So if I could be the first astronaut to arrive on a new, uncharted planet (what do you mean by new anyways? A newly formed planet or just new to us?) I would be ecstatic.
So let’s take it that this planet is devoid of all life except for plants and stuff. No animals, birds or humanoid or any other sentient type of beings either. I will do a survey, map and chart the land and when it’s finally time to leave the planet and go back into space, I will leave a note that will serve well for those aliens or anyone who comes to the planet after I am gone. It will be perfect and scare the shit outta any badass alien who thinks he can play around with me.
“This planet was full of life but they pissed Roshan off and they paid the price!”
What the heck is this film all about? This is a superhero film?? What a load of messy crap and this pile of garbage made almost $750 million at the box office?? What? Suicide Squad is the third installment in the DC Extended Universe. The film is written and directed by David Ayer and stars an ensemble cast featuring Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ike Barinholtz, Scott Eastwood and Cara Delevingne. Ben Affleck and Ezra Miller have cameos as Batman & The Flash.
Amanda Waller, who leads a secret government organization called A.R.G.U.S. and in the aftermath of Superman’s death (as shown in Batman vs Superman : Dawn of Justice) assembles Task Force X, a team of dangerous criminals imprisoned at Belle Reve Prison consisting of elite hitman Deadshot, former psychiatrist and the Joker’s lover Harley Quinn, pyrokinetic ex-gangster El Diablo, opportunistic thief Captain Boomerang, genetic mutation Killer Croc, and specialized assassin Slipknot. hey are placed under command of Colonel Rick Flag to be used as disposable assets in high-risk missions for the United States government. Another possible recruit is Flag’s lover Dr. June Moone, an archaeologist possessed by a witch-goddess known as the “Enchantress”. Tatsu Yamashiro / Katana an expert martial artist and swordswoman, who is assigned to Flag also volunteers for the missions.
Needless to say Enchantress breaks loose and converts a bunch of people in a subway into a horde of monsters, and summons her brother to assist, her deciding to eradicate humankind with a mystical weapon for Waller imprisoning her. Waller sends the squad to the area informing everyone except Flag and the soldiers that it is a terrorist attack. What happens next is a bunch of confusion, loud explosions and shouting and a bunch of things that I did not find interesting at all. The directing is bad, the characters are terrible (Harley Quinn is the only exception and Margot Robbie did a find job in her role as the nutty lady) and the film is actually boring. The redeeming of a remorseful character is usually something that can make a movie, give it an emotional edge but in the death of El Diablo embraces his abilities and manages to distract Incubus long enough for the bomb to detonate underneath, killing them both.
The movie is a success but whyyyyyy? What is supposed to be so good about the movie? Nothing much. Even Jared Leto as the Joker is wasted in it and hopefully he and Robbie will get to show up in more DCEU films. The rests can go to hell as far as I am concerned. 5 outta 10!
Arsenal moved top of the Premier League as they came from behind to beat Stoke at Emirates Stadium. The visitors took the lead through Charlie Adam’s penalty after Granit Xhaka elbowed Joe Allen. Theo Walcott turned in substitute Hector Bellerin’s cross just before half-time for his 100th club goal. Mesut Ozil headed over goalkeeper Lee Grant to give Arsenal the lead before substitute Alex Iwobi side-footed home the third. The Gunners leapfrog Chelsea on goals scored, with Antonio Conte’s side facing West Brom at Stamford Bridge on Sunday at 12:00 GMT.
Arsenal came into the game in great form after putting five past West Ham last Saturday and scoring four in Basel in the Champions League on Wednesday. Unbeaten in the league since an opening-day home defeat by Liverpool, that record looked in danger when Xhaka caught and cut Welshman Allen with his elbow, prompting referee Lee Mason to award the penalty from which Stoke scored. He did not show the Swiss a yellow card. The Gunners had already lost Shkodran Mustafi to injury, with the German later ruled out for at least three weeks. His replacement, Bellerin, had a superb game. The Spain right-back frequently drove forward and it was from his low cross that Walcott glanced the equaliser. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain chipped a wonderful pass over the Stoke defence for Ozil to head his ninth league goal of the season, with Potters right-back Erik Pieters still running back having had to leave the pitch following treatment.
Iwobi, who scored in Basel, ensured Arsenal moved top ahead of Chelsea, having scored four more goals than the Blues. They are level on 34 points with a goal difference of +21. Will Arsenal have the mental and physical stamina to still be in that position come the end of the season? Stoke were also in excellent form, winning five of their previous nine games and losing just one. They had only conceded five times in that run but history was not in their favour, having lost their past 14 visits to Arsenal and not winning there since August 1981. Marc Muniesa went close with an early 30-yard volley before Adam sent Petr Cech the wrong way to mark his 31st birthday with his first goal of the season. Twice Stoke came close to scoring only for Arsenal to score almost immediately afterwards. Marko Arnautovic threatened to make it 2-0 after an excellent run in the Gunners’ box but was crowded out just before Walcott’s equaliser. Mark Hughes’ side increasingly found themselves on the back foot in the second half but came close to an equaliser when Peter Crouch was brought on for a corner and immediately headed down to force a smart, low save from Cech. Within two minutes Iwobi made it 3-1 to put the game to bed.