Arsenal vs. Stoke City: Preview

Aaron Ramsey celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during the UEFA Champions League match between Marseille and Arsenal at Stade Velodrome on September 18, 2013 in Marseille, France. (Getty Images)

Arsenal have the chance to go top in the league today with a win against a physical Stoke side at Emirates. Arsenal’s current six-game winning streak offers great encouragement to the squad in their chase for the silverware this season.

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 attack
• Possession
• Offside Traps
• Creating goal scoring chances

Stoke City

• Defence (Man Marking)
• Winning the ball back
• Physical game play
• Set Pieces

Weakness

Arsenal

• Prone to counter attacks
• Struggle against defensive teams

Stoke City

• Lack of goals
• Lack 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