Stoke City travels to North London in good form of their own. They have already taken seven points and last week, they completely dominated a good Manchester City. Neutrals can expect a good battle between the two teams, who follow two different philosophies.
Injury news
Arsenal
Arsene Wenger will miss their chunk of his stars: Mikel Arteta, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Abou Diaby, Lukas Podolski, Tomas Rosicky and Santi Cazorla are all ruled out due to injury.
Captain Thomas Vermaelen has returned to full fitness and will start the game from the bench.
Stoke City
Marc Muniesa is out with an injury while Charlie Adam will go through a late fitness test before the clash to decide about his participation.
Probable Line-up
Arsenal: Szczesny; Gibbs, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Sagna; Ramsey, Wilshere, Ozil, Flamini, Walcott; Giroud
Stoke City: Begovic; Pieters, Huth, Shawcross, Cameron; Arnautovic, Ireland, N’Zonzi, Wilson, Walters; Jones
Tactics:
Arsenal are expected to use the same flexible 4-2-3-1 formation with Mesut Ozil playing just behind Giroud. At Emirates, one can expect Arsenal to dominate the game from the word go. Surprisingly, Arsenal’s away form is much better than their home form.
This is mainly due to the fact that opponents come to Emirates with a defensive mentality and try to hit Arsenal on the counter. But Arsenal are no more a one dimensional tiki taka team. They now play with width as well, which they rarely used to in previous years.
With Stoke taking the same defensive counter attacking route, Arsenal need to have a plan B ready if their beautiful football fails them today.
Strengths
Arsenal
Wing attackPossessionOffside TrapsCreating goal scoring chances
Stoke City
Defence (Man Marking)Winning the ball backPhysical game playSet Pieces
Weakness
Arsenal
Prone to counter attacksStruggle against defensive teams
Stoke City
Lack of goalsLack of creativity
Prediction
Even with Arsenal’s amazing recent form, it won’t be that easy for them to breakdown a disciplined Stoke defence. But they have more than enough creativity and attacking strength in the team to secure three crucial points today that will put them top of the league table.
Arsenal 2-1 Stoke City
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