Arsenal vs. Stoke Preview, Team News and Prediction

It’s been a few weeks since the last Arsenal home game and you can guarantee that the atmosphere will be rocking. Two good away wins since the international break as well as the acquisition of Özil will mean a very happy crowd indeed and they’ll no doubt get behind the team even more considering the rivalry between us and those Neanderthals at Stoke. Stoke have changed their style quite a bit under Hughes, looking to actually play football over their usual brand of rugby under Pulis. However, when facing a team like Arsenal who love possession away from home and you can tell they’ll revert to type. We’ll have a lot more possession than our last two matches and we can expect to be frustrated by the possible lack of chances Stoke will give us. However, the addition of Özil was made for games like this where a little bit of passing quality is what’ll be the difference. Now that Walcott has scored his first goal, we can expect a bit more from him going forwards, especially when in front of goal and I wouldn’t be surprised if he scored. Line up: Szczesny Sagna – Mertesacker – Koscielny – Gibbs Flamini – Ramsey Walcott – Özil – Wilshere Giroud This is pretty much our standard line up because of the catalogue of injuries we have suffered with players like Cazorla, Podolski, Chamberlain and Rosicky still to come back. One bit of good news is the return of Arteta who I’m sure will start on the bench but will be brought on late on if we’re winning. He’ll most likely get a full game against West Brom mid week before starting in the Premier league again. This game is going to be tight but I think with the atmosphere and the form, we can overload Stoke attacking wise and I think we’ll win 2 – 0.