A lot of hi fives going around
after whats been a past 7 days of emphatic response that has seen us put “minows”
to the sword (remind me if any team is a minnow these days) scoring 9 goals and conceding a whole 2 goals,
what happened to the our keeping clean sheets? That’s ma only gripe, I was telling someone
I would rather take a 3-nil win over a 5-1 win or 2-0 over a 3-1 win, yeah I
know football is about scoring goals but that’s just me. I cant complain much
though, the boiz needed to bounce back from the EFL set back against Southampton
and they have done so by emphatically, doing the "bizness" against West ham away in the
league and thrashing Basel away in the champions league, topping the group in
the process. Alexis Sanchez was the star of the show again but a deserved mention to Lucas Perez who is warming his way back into the team with goals having scored a hattrick midweek in the UCL. All that is history now, the weekend is upon us and it’s a visit
from Stoke city at the Emirates. Every match is like a must win so why not
this? Last weekend was good with City, Liverpool and man United dropping points
while the gunners were on hand to take advantage, can they push and and make
this weekend even better with another win with a clean sheet this time? I suppose
90 minutes plus stoppages will tell.
Mark Hughes potters are much
different from the attritional hard knocks that used to be the spine of former
coach Tony Pulis ( mind you, Pulis is currently high flying with the baggies), Hughes has tweaked
them into a bit more ball playing technical side with Allen, Shakiri, Borjan, imbula giving them a bit of sleekness
on the pitch, but don’t be fooled cuz their muscle men are still there. Artunovic can be a rough rugby player at times, his push on Debauchy into the ad boards last season comes
to mind, also Shawcross while not playing today remains a totem for their beastly
old ways. Speaking of Shawcross, Ramsey has not exactly set the gunners alight
with his performances since coming back from injury although his last game in
the middle with Xhaka was a much improved performance in recent times, I would
not start him. Its Coquelin and Xhaka in the middle for me. Coq for his snap and bite, while Xhaka helps to dictate play from deep, freeing the likes of
Ozil to do more damage to the opposition up front. One has to be wary of Stoke's
recent form after a less than ideal start to their season. Mark Hughes men seem
to have turned a corner……note a corner, not the corner, sitting 11 points
adrift of the gunners in 9th place. Despite their recent form, I
hope the gunners can reign them in with a good 3-0 win to the Arsenal.
The form
book has both Teams mirroring themselves, Arsenal has 3W 2D 0L in the last 5
premier league games, Stoke has 3W 1D 1L. Not much difference if you ask me
just the draw/loss. That tells me we may be in for a tough day at home
especially when you remember that we have dropped most points thus far at the Emirates, hopefully i am wrong on that one, knowing that Stoke City has never picked as much as point on their visits to the Emirates.
My predicted line up will look have a few tweaks shown below
Subs: Ospina, Jenks, Ramsey,
Perez, Giroud, El Neny, Jeff.
 |
| Image Credits: The Uk Guardian online |
This line up leaves us with a pretty strong bench just in case Arsenal needs to go more direct with long balls in the box. Whatever team Arsene puts out there, here is hoping they continue the winning streak building the much needed momentum into the Festive season's hectic schedule. That's it from us, do enjoy the game where ever you are.....Ciao
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