Arsenal v Stoke Preview

Arsenal have provided plenty of material to write about this summer. The seemingly never ending transfer sagas of Van Persie, Song and most recently, Sahin have filled more column inches than one would care to imagine. Because of the circus surrounding Arsenal’s departures, the arrivees have received far less attention than normal. Hopefully this will prove to be a blessing as they try to integrate into the team during the first few weeks of the season.

But, thankfully, I’m not writing about transfer stories tonight. Believe it or not, we actually have a game of football to focus on. Last time out against Sunderland, it was the same old story. Plenty of chances, none converted. Disappointingly, many jumped to criticise Arsenal’s new strikers, Podolski and Giroud. It’s the first game for christ’s sake! We’ve had games like that before and we’ll have them again.

I’d rather focus on the positives going into the dreaded trip to the Britannia. Those positives centre mostly around another new recruit, Santi Cazorla. I was elated when we signed him as he’s a like for like replacement for Cesc, which we so desperately need, and he didn’t disappoint. Opta say he created 7 chances during the game, which is a total bettered by only Leighton Baines after the second round of matches. If our strikers can click into gear quickly I’m sure we’ll be banging them in in no time.

Now, that may not be this weekend. Stoke away is hardly a fixture to set the pulses racing. We can expect the pitch to be difficult, the opposition to break up our passing game with numerous fouls and long balls to be continuously pumped up to our still suspect defence.

I do have a sneaking suspicion we’ll win. I’m going to come back to Cazorla for the reason why. Stoke probably won’t ‘park the bus’ at home and there should be more space in behind the defenders than there was against Sunderland so I think Cazorla’s link up play with the wingers could be crucial to our hopes. If the Spaniard can get to grips with Stoke’s physical game (he certainly won’t have experienced anything like it before) then I think he might just run riot. I imagine Stoke will look to get into him a fair bit, that is, if they can get close to him. He showed against Sunderland how good a dribbler he is so I can certainly see a few fouls being given away, not that we’ll do anything with them mind.

It’s not all just about Cazorla though. Giroud could find himself starting due to his height and if he does, he will have to be on his game as there will be lots of Arsenal crosses. There is no doubt about that. An early goal in his Arsenal career will be a big boost and will hopefully go a long way to helping him settle.

I think the team pretty much picks itself, apart from a couple of positions. Diaby has had a good pre-season and whilst he looks fit and sharp, I would be slightly cautious before throwing him into the Britannia cauldron. Whilst his height would be missed, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain would provide more pace and creativity in the middle. Like Cazorla, he is very slippery on the ball and could cause Stoke’s lumbering defence a few problems. Instead of fighting fire with fire, Wenger could easily just pick a team to outclass Stoke in the middle. Personally, I would like to see the Ox play. He had a great pre-season and I was disappointed he didn’t play more last year. I’m unashamedly one of his biggest fans, but, bias aside, I think he’d cause the Stoke defence far more problems than Diaby would.

The only remaining question is who out of Gervinho, Podolski, Giroud and Walcott will make up the front three. Honestly, I have absolutely no idea how it will look, and apart from Giroud up top, I genuinely don’t think it matters too much. They’re all playing alright and they have different strengths and weaknesses. However they line up, the team will look good.

Well, it felt really good to write about Arsenal’s football rather than their transfers. I’ll be back tomorrow to pick up the pieces from our worrying defeat, or, more hopefully, praise the lads for a job well done.