Arsenal News » Arsenal v Stoke, the facts, stats, and the result before it even happens
Arsenal vs. Stoke preview
On Saturday, Arsenal play host to Stoke City on a day that marks the 100 year anniversary of the first ever North London derby!
Pulis is marking himself to be a bit of an Allardyce in terms of management approach: he makes no apologies for his side’s style of play, and manages consistently to outperform expectations given his resources.
Keeping Stoke up last season was an achievement (including three points taken from us Gunners at the Britannia) and this season Stoke are hovering in the top half, way ahead of the likes of West Ham, Blackburn and Everton.
Recent form:
Arsenal are amusingly said to be in the midst of a crisis by the media, but I’m sure we all know that to be an exaggeration. While a 1-0 loss to Sunderland and a 3-0 defeat to Chelsea (disappointing, but the score line was flattering to them) is not exactly the most inspiring form, if anyone can turn it around, it’s the Arsenal.
Without a goal since Van Persie’s injury on international duty, we need to return to our free scoring form and hopefully Stoke’s Sorensen will be picking the ball out of his net at least once.
Stoke City are a side who last season, stayed up on the back of some sensational form in front of their own fans, but performed poorly away. This season that form has continued, with a succession of draws and just a single win against Tottenham (but we all know they aren’t too hard to come by).
Their away fixtures have been fairly kind, too: Liverpool, Birmingham, Bolton, Tottenham, Pompey, Hull, Wolves and Blackburn, yet yielding no wins. That said, the Potters have lost none of their last seven games, and so Arsenal could still have their work cut out for them.
Injuries:
Long-term absentees Djourou and Van Persie are out for the majority of the season, while Gibbs (foot), Clichy (back), Diaby (Calf) and Bendtner (hernia) are all definite absentees for Saturday’s game. Theo Walcott, our latest glass forward, has a slight muscle strain and will miss the Emirates clash, while Sagna took a knock against Chelsea but is expected to be fit. Alex Song is suspended after picking up a yellow against Manchester City on Wednesday, and with Liverpool away coming up after Stoke, I’ll let you make your own mind up on whether that was intentional or not!
Stoke are without England hopeful Shawcross, while Faye’s back injury is certain to keep him out of the game. The impressive Dean Whitehead is out of the game, after collecting his fifth booking of the season.
Key men:
On Saturday, I will have my eye on the performance of Arsenal’s Eduardo Da Silva. From his impressive showing in Euro 2008 qualifying with Croatia to his classy goals in the cups for us on his return last season, there is much, much more to come from the Brazilian-born striker. Hopefully he will grow into the role, but in the meantime, the midfield need to be doing more to alleviate the goalscoring burden.
Denilson and Fabregas have both showcased an ability to score excellent goals, the former twice already this season and the latter most memorably at the San Siro two seasons ago.
For Stoke, impressive left winger Etherington will be looking to impress onlookers down our right hand side. The winger, previously of West Ham, was bought last January to offer Stoke another dimension to their play and many have tipped him to claim a berth in England’s World Cup squad. Stoke haven’t got a goalscorer to mark out as a credible threat on the basis of this season’s form, but Beattie fired them to safety in the latter part of last season, and Jamaican international Fuller is always a handful.
Arsenal predicted line-up:
Almunia
Sagna Gallas Vermaelen Traore
Ramsey
Fabregas Denilson
Nasri Eduardo Arshavin
Subs: Fabianksi, Merida, Silvestre, Eboue, Rosicky, Wilshere, Vela
The back five pretty much picks itself, with Traore apparently 3rd choice leftback now. Wenger stated that Silvestre wasn’t really an option in a press conference last week, so it’s out of Traore and Eboue for the slot.
From my view in the stands at City, Traore got taken to the cleaners by Wright-Phillips on numerous occasions, and because of this, we could well see Eboue fill in at leftback. Perhaps. I’m unsure on which I would prefer – if we drop Traore, we destroy his confidence when we may yet need to call on him, so it is a tricky one.
Ramsey will take over in the holding role as he did for Wolves away (so I’m told – I didn’t get much chance to see the match on that day, only the odd glance at screen in a Parisian hostel!). Perhaps Denilson will hold, and Ramsey will be placed a little further forward: you never know.
The front three seems unlikely to include Rosicky after he played 90 minutes for the Carling Cup side. I feel we should persevere with Eduardo in the central role: remember it took Van Persie time to learn the role (his first goal came against City I think). We know Eduardo has the class to cut it in this team, and if Wenger didn’t think he could deputise adequately for Robin then he would have purchased. Eduardo – over to you.
Prediction:
Stoke’s away form has been poor, but they have shown a certain resilience whenever they’ve played. Bear in mind this is a Stoke City side a mere five points behind ourselves, and who have conceded three less goals in the league than us. However, with only four goals scored away from home, even Arsenal’s defensive shakes shouldn’t undermine our quest to return to winning ways. There’s no reason we can’t beat them, so I’m going to go for 2-0 to the Arsenal, though I won’t be surprised if we grab another one or two.
Halftime musing:
Tony Pulis has made himself to look a little foolish in the wake of “handshakegate”. He commented that Wenger’s failure to shake hands with Hughes was undermining respect in the game, which had an impact right through to the grassroots. And what about respecting the rulebook, Tony, that tells Hughes to remain in his technical area? Is that less important than some unwritten etiquette? Apparently so.
Apologies and Adverts.
Both UNTOLD ARSENAL (where you are now) and MAKING THE ARSENAL (the blog about Arsenal 100 years ago) were down for a while Thursday night and Friday morning. Apologies all round – a temp file on the server had a hiccup. And all that on the centenary of our first game, first goal and first victory against the Tiny Totts. You can read the background to that game and the historic significance of it on www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk And of course you can buy the book that tells the aftermath of the events of 100 years ago, also known as MAKING THE ARSENAL. Visit Amazon.co.uk or click on the link you have just passed by.
Phil Gregory is a 20 year old student at the University of Leeds. Studying Economics and French, he’s been a Gunner since he got interested in football at a young age, and plans on being a regular at the Arsenal away games in the North this season.
Tony Attwood wrote “Making the Arsenal” which is why it is always publicised here, and Billy the Dog is down the pub.
(c) UNTOLD ARSENAL 2009.