please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Venue: Britannia Stadium Sunday, January 17th 2015 KO Time: 16.15 BST please log in to view this image Head to Head Against Stoke City: Played: 95 Wins: 49 Draws: 21 Losses: 15 Goals For: 152 Goals Against: 89 Goal Difference: 63 Last 6 Meetings: Arsenal 2-0 Stoke City Arsenal 3-0 Stoke City Stoke City 3-2 Arsenal Stoke City 1-0 Arsenal Arsenal 3-1 Stoke City Arsenal 1-0 Stoke City please log in to view this image Arsène Wenger has revealed the latest team news ahead of Sunday's Premier League match at Stoke City: on the team news... From Liverpool we have no injuries, so that’s good news. on whether Elneny will play... Elneny is available for selection, I haven’t decided yet [whether I will play him]. I have to see how everyone has recovered. Elneny is a possibility to be in the squad for Sunday. on Alexis... Alexis I would say has a 60:40 chance to be available and be back in the squad. He has two decisive days - Friday and Saturday. He is fit, he has worked very hard and the decision we have to take is whether to take a gamble or not on his injury. on Rosicky... Tomas needs first to have a game somewhere. We hope for maybe an under-21 game or at least a bit more training with the first team.
Question is does Elneny start or should we go with Chambers? Last time we blooded in a new signing against Stoke I'd say it went well. Was Monreal back in 2013.
I suppose it all depends on how Wenger evaluates his 1st few days based on i) how good he actually is, ii)how quickly he gets used to our systems and style of play and how fit he is and iii) how fatigued Flamini is. I'm not sure I can answer as I don't know how good he is, if he's signed as just cover, a rising star or as a challenger for Coq.
I'd go with Mo over Chambers, it's his first game so he will be up for it and will be looking to impress.
Shaqiri is a big loss. He, Bojan and Arnautovic have been looking proper decent recently. As much as I like to rag on Stoke, and I do, that trio have made them good to watch. The Citeh game in particular was really impressive.
This is one of the games that I least look forward to every season. Alongside Chelsea away and Southampton away. This is the game that their fans relish every season at the Britannia. However, if we want to win the title, this is one of those hurdles that we simply need to overcome. I don't care how poor our record is over there, we are better than them in every possible way and we need to show bottle like we did vs Olympiakos away and beat these ****ers. Although their brand of football has improved significantly, we should not be surprised if they revert to route one tactics against us, starting with the likes of Adam, Crouch & Walters (who both always seem to facking score against us). Because they know how much we hate their overtly physical approach when they play us (generally). We need to be prepared for everything because they will throw the kitchen sink at us. Make no mistake about it.
I agree with all of this. I'd like a strong referee who will cut out the antics Stoke will employ in both boxes in terms of holding, shirt pulling etc. It was interesting to see Mike Dean award a penalty for that against Man U this week. Stoke seem to get away with it all the time, especially the thug Shawcross. Arnautavic will be difficult to handle. A bit worried but agree we need to set a marker in these types of games and some improvement has been seen this season.
Stoke fan in Peace! Good luck at the weekend and hopefully it will be a competitive but harmonious match. I was there that awful day and as difficult has it has been I do hope that the treatment of both players will be respectful, however I also understand that it only needs a handful of fans to start the animosity which often fuels both sets of players on the pitch. We often forget the horrendous incident was really just the tipping point of what had been an unhappy experience of away days for AW - both he and Pulis didn't help either. Shaq will be a massive miss, not only because of his personal contribution to our forward line, but the balance he offers to our attack and the space he creates for others. We have been a bit flat as of late and have struggled to make the false No9 system work - Bojan can quickly become ineffective - he's just not big enough or fast enough to be able to play the role effectively week in week out. Our greatest results this season have been when we have played against more open play styles, so I don't see us reverting to "type" (the Pulis era is now long gone for us), for this one - but I may be proven wrong. Assuming we play well, our issue will be the central defensive pairing of Shawcross and Wollshied. Shawcross will be under pressure because of the fixture and over officiated because of the history, Wollshied is just shocking, has the turning circle of the QE2 and as a fellow forum member once said, the pace of his 89 year old nan in slippers on a laminate floor! You obviously have the quality and more importantly the form to take this one, especially has our home form hasn't been that emphatic this year. Or, is this where your run potentially falters, as one of you guys said - these are the games you have to win to take the title.
Just saw our stats on twitter for worst grounds to go to under Wenger. Brittania is by far out there with a win ratio of .6 or something! Horrific.
Thanks for the kind words, I hope it will be a good match Although looking at the Oatcake forum, it appears your fellow Stokies don't share the same sentiments you do! To be honest, I don't really give a crap about the whole Ramsey incident anymore, it was 6 facking years ago. I'd like to think the players and the manager have all moved on from it now. I just want us to go to your ground, show some mettle and hopefully get the victory that we need. I know how important this game is to your fans and players like Shawcross and Whelan who have been around for ages will probably make the others aware about how much this game means to your fans. But objectively speaking, we are a better side than you and if we are serious about the league, we need to win this. In normal circumstances, I would be content with a draw, but the result against Liverpool means we simply need to win this fixture. All the best for the rest of the season.
No Sanchez again, too. This is gonna give Stoke a massive psychological advantage, if they didn't have it already.
The only attacking player we have on the bench is the 19 year old Iwobi. I'm beginning to believe that the two points dropped at Anfield are gonna bite us on the arse here...
No Ozil and no Sanchez... Oh dear... How long is Ozil out for? I really hope it's just for this game, he has been the creative force behind our good season so far.
I don't even see the point in watching. We're set up to lose here. I mean Oxo at #10 and only one attacking player on the bench?
One thing we cannot afford to do is start this game as sloppily as we have done the last few games. If we do, Stoke will punish us and could be out of sight before we know it. I think it is unfair to label Stoke physical and long ball merchants. They raced into a 3goal lead last season playing good football, I seem to recall they had a good goal disallowed as well. We really need to start this game on the front foot.
