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EPL: Arsenal suffer more misery at hands of Stoke City

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Arsenal's appalling recent record at Stoke City continued as they gifted the hosts a 3-0 halftime lead before staging a second-half fightback in vain on Saturday.

Arsene Wenger's side were eventually beaten 2-3 -- their fourth loss at the Britannia Stadium in seven seasons with two of the other clashes ending in draws. This time Arsenal needed only 19 seconds to begin unravelling against a side Wenger believes plays with more "animosity" against the Gunners than any other club.

Peter Crouch put Stoke ahead inside a minute and goals from Bojan and Jon Walters had Stoke clear by halftime before a Santi Cazorla penalty and Aaron Ramsey's goal gave Arsenal hope. However, they could not claw back the deficit after having Calum Chambers sent off and Wenger will again have questions to answer after two consecutive league wins had appeared to have put Arsenal's stuttering season back on track.

"A lot of regrets because we have given a lot," Wenger told the BBC. "We had a great energy level and a great response and the collectively the spirit of the team is fantastic. "But we missed defensively our start of the game and we paid a very heavy price for that. We gave very easy goals away and we were not decisive enough in the challengers.

"When you are 3-0 down you have a mountain to climb, we did it and we tried it but we were a bit unlucky in the end." Stoke and Arsenal clashes have had an extra edge since Ramsey's leg was broken by a Ryan Shawcross tackle in 2010 during Arsenal's only Premier League era victory at Stoke.

"For (Stoke) it's the game of the year, they look to have a bit more animosity against us than other teams when you watch on television, so you have to be a bit more committed and have the commitment from the start. "We did have it but it was too late in the game." (Reporting by Martyn Herman; editing by Justin Palmer)

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