The Stoke City manager Mark Hughes has slowly been improving his side over the years and this summer he has managed to persuade the PSG star Jese Rodriguez to join the club on a year’s loan and has also brought in defender Bruno Martins Indi from Porto, and he is hoping to see the team improve on last years home performances against the big sides, starting with Arsenal tomorrow.
At the end of last season the Gunners gained a facile 4-1 at the Bet365 Stadium, but the home team had nothing to play for while the Gunners were still fighting fora place in the Top Four. Hughes is expecting a much better showing this time around. He told the official Stoke City website: “We didn’t cover ourselves in glory the last time we came out against them, so we need a marked improvement on that and I sense that from the group in fairness,”
“We’ve got a number of exciting new players in the building as well so I think everyone is looking forward to seeing how they’re going to perform.
“We’re clear in what we have to do to get fans on the edge of their seats and that’s what we’ll attempt to do.
“Last year, in terms of excitement against the big boys, we didn’t really give them enough to take the roof off the place so that’s what we’ll try and do this season.
“As I say, we’ve got good players, great players in my view, ones that will get you off your seat and have your cheers back at them so we’re all really looking forward to it.”
Although Arsenal won last season’s meeting, Stoke have a great home record against Arsenal, and after losing out to just a Wayne Rooney goal at Everton last week they will be fighting hard for their first points of the season, but surely Arsenal will have too much firepower for them again this season…
Admin