I hope he breaks his scoring duck today

*removes cobwebs from blog*

That was quite a break. With the paucity of things happening at the club coupled with some international football, I decided to take a mini break from writing about the club but real football is back, so here I am.

The best news about the international break was that there were no further casualties but there was the sad news that Jack Wilshere suffered a setback and would be out for quite some time. The two players we thought were going to recover after the international break and add something to the side are still nursing injuries. Oh well!

Let’s head straight to the preview shall we?

Arsenal Team News

The only thing at the back of the fans mind today would be, who would score the goals for the Gunners, because they’ve become hard to come by in recent weeks. Arsenal’s home record against Stoke is very impressive with Arsene Wenger’s side recording 11 straight wins against the Potters on home soil. However, the Gunners have failed to score in five of their last six home league games, recording one win, three draws and two defeats. Arsenal’s shot conversion ratio is 5.6% – only Liverpool, with 5.4%, have a lower figure.

There’s great news concerning Wenger’s best defensive duo, Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker as both players are fit for today’s game. Mesut Ozil also played 90 minutes for Germany in midweek so he’s fit to start.

Arsenal Injury / Suspension News

Jack Wilshere (ankle), Tomas Rosicky (knee) and Danny Welbeck (knee)

Arsenal Predicted Lineup

Stoke Team News

Despite the improvement in their overall technical play, Stoke has ensured a very torrid start to the season, losing two and drawing three of their last five games. Their disciplinary record was also questionable as they were on the spotlight for their last performance against West Brom, where they ended the game with just nine men following the red cards brandished to Charlie Adam and Ibrahim Afellay.

Following the summer spending, one would have thought that Stoke’s fortunes would improve this season but it has been a case of a series of heart breaks and near misses for the Stoke faithful. A late Philippe Coutinho strike changed one point to zero for the side and therer were two quickfire draws against Tottenham and Norwich. Then of course, there was the defeat to West Brom a fortnight ago.

I don’t expect Stoke to get anything out of today’s match and the record books aren’t in their favor as well.

Stoke Injury / Suspension News

Ryan Shawcross (back), Peter Odemwingie (hamstring), Glen Johnson (groin), Marko Arnautovic (ankle), Miran Diouf (ankle), Charlie Adam (suspension), Ibrahim Afellay (suspension)

Stoke Predicted Lineup

Team Form

Arsenal

• Last Five Games: W L W D W
• Last Result: Newcastle 0 – Arsenal 1 (Coloccini own goal 52′)
• Leading Goalscorer: Own Goal (2)

Stoke

• Last Five Games: L D D D L
• Last Result: Stoke 0 – West Brom 1 (Rondon 45′)
• Leading Goalscorer: Miram Diouf (2)

Gooner Daily predicts 3 – 0 to the Arsenal

Sayonara.

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