Two teams coming from two consecutive league wins clash on Saturday when Arsenal host Stoke City at the Emirates Stadium. Last season Arsenal clinched a 0-0 draw away at Stoke and won the home game 2-0, but the Potters have won two of the last five games against the Gunners. However, Arsenal have won all their last 9 home matches against Stoke in all competitions.
Arsenal are still unbeaten in the Premier League since the opening day of the season and have also secured back-to-back wins against Bournemouth and West Ham United. The last match, at West Ham, saw a superb performance from Alexis Sanchez, who scored a hat-trick. They are three points behind leaders Chelsea, so any result except a win would be very disappointing for the home fans. Hector Bellerin has returned to training after an ankle injury but might not be ready to play yet.
Stoke City climbed into the top half of the Premier League table after winning 1-0 at Watford and 2-0 at home against Burnley, they have won three of their last five matches and lost just one of them. Manager Mark Hughes has lots of injury worries, with Ryan Shawcross, Stephen Ireland, Ibrahim Afellay, Phil Bardsley, Geoff Cameron and Jack Butland all sidelined. Marko Arnautovic and Bruno Martins Indi picked up knocks last week but they should be able to recover.
Probable line-ups:
Arsenal: Cech - Gabriel, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal - Xhaka, Coquelin - Walcott, Ozil, Chamberlain - Sanchez
Stoke: Grant - Johnson, Indi, Muniesa, Pieters - Whelan, Imbula - Shaqiri, Allen, Arnautovic - Walters
My prediction: Arsenal to win 2-0.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Arsenal win - 1.35
Draw - 5.50
Stoke win - 9.50
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Comments (1)
sharpe
12/16/16, 11:12:15 PM
Stoke City not performing anywhere to their best lately so it was expecting that the high flying Arsenal would not have too many issues get past them. Arsenal...
Stoke City not performing anywhere to their best lately so it was expecting that the high flying Arsenal would not have too many issues get past them. Arsenal don't have troubles usually with those mid table teams more so when they are in good form as they were then, the problems coming when they have to face most of the top teams, sometimes playing even cowardly in the big games.
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