Stoke City vs Arsenal preview
Posted on | October 30, 2008 | 1 Comment
Game : Stoke City vs Arsenal
Competition : English Premier League
Venue : Britannia Stadium ( Stoke are at home)
Date : 1 November
Time : 3pm GMT.
After squandering a two goal lead not once but twice on Wednesday night against Tottenham Hotspur at home, Arsene Wenger’s young guns travel to the Britannia Stadium to take on Tony Pulis’ Stoke City.
Arsenal lead 4-2 with minutes to go on the clock, but they crumbled when it mattered the most and allowed goals from Jermaine Jenas and Aaron Lennon to convert what looked like a certain three points to one. The result, along with Hull City’s 0-3 loss to Chelsea, means that Arsenal are in third spot currently, six points behind league leaders Liverpool. Wenger chose to start with Silvestre and Gallas in defence against Spurs and opted for the quartet of Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas, Denilson and Theo Walcott in midfield. Wenger will continue to rotate his men, with the Champions League clash against Fenerbahce coming up after this one. That means the likes of Alexandre Song, Emmanuel Eboue, Carlos Vela, Nicklas Bendtner and Abou Diaby could start. Tomas Rosicky and Eduardo remain sidelined with injuries. Robin Van Persie had a great game, having a hand in all four goals before he was substituted for the night.
Stoke produced one of their best performances of the season to beat Roy Keane’s Sunderland 1-0 on Wednesday night. The goal by Ricardo Fuller came from another accurate long throw in by Rory Delap, and his skills there are proving to be immensely valuable to Stoke. It lifted them out of the relegation zone on Wednesday, and has helped them quite often this season. All three of Stoke’s wins this season have come at win- against Sunderland, Tottenham and Aston Villa. Stoke have a direct and more physical style of approach, quite different in comparison to Arsenal’s pleasant ” pass the ball into the net ” policy. Stoke have leaked in quite a few this season, and the lack of a composed central defensive pairing has been a constant headache to Pulis.
Arsenal often struggled against Bolton, a side with a very physical game. However Wenger would have impressed upon his boys the need to pick three points here, and they should win this 3-1.
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November 1st, 2008 @ 1:16 PM
Both the Stoke goals came from Delap throwins :p
Arsenal had about 70% possession, but got only one goal, and that too late in the game from Clichy.