Despite Stoke City’s abysmal record against Arsenal away, where their last win was actually at Highbury back in 1981, their manager Mark Hughes believes that his team is now ready to put that jinx to bed this weekend. The fact that they are preparing to face an Arsenal team that is unbeaten in the League since the opening day of the season doesn’t seem to bother him in the slightest!
“It’s going to be a tough task, we haven’t done great there in the past,” Hughes said. “Obviously in the past as a club we’ve struggled to get results at places like Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge, but we’ve been able to do that in recent times. This is the only one left standing so it would be great to get it out the way.
“Our recent form is good and we’re in good heart, so confidence is high, that is huge in football, so we’ll be able to benefit from that,”
“You do have to be a little bit careful because if you’re overconfident and you overextend yourself against good teams, then you can come unstuck.
“The key is that we remain solid and in a position to be able to win the game, clearly they are going to have opportunities in terms of the possession that they have.
“It’s up to us to restrict them to minimal chances and make sure we’re creating chances when going the other way.”
Eh? He’s worried about his team being OVERconfident at the Emirates? Is he being serious! They haven’t beaten us here for 35 years and we are currently in second place in the League table, and he is seriously expecting to win on our home ground! I think he may be in for a shock!
Sam P
Well they beat Watford and Burnley recently so that must mean a maiden Emirates victory is on the cards? To be fair to Sparky he did say we were one of the teams who could win the league. I hope they come and have a go… leave plenty of spaces. This isn’t the Pulis Stoke who come to the Emirates to defend- players like Shaqiri and Arnautovic will want to showcase their talents. Sanchez got 2 goals and an assist in January last year at the Emirates and in similar form so bring it Sparky’s Stoke!
im worried about this one, Stock is physical team and Ozil and Alexis must not be victims of Stock team who is Colled Rugby team by Wenger..
Cech
Gab Mustafi Kos Monreal
Xhaka Coq
Perez. Ozil Ox
Alexis
this for me is the Ideal team to cause Stock problem.
#COYG
People do say biased, which we all are at certain times and with favorite players. But can someone tell me how we picked up more yellow cards than Stoke did last season, I’m not sure if they done over the full season or if they showed it over a fair number of games, I remember reading something about it a while back. Like how can Arsenal be the cleanest side in England for years, but then your watching other matches and you can see they aren’t refereed the same way as our players are. Some teams players are just dirty, but they’ll (refs) allow some extra wiggle room for those teams because they know it’s only a small matter of time for when the next incident is. With us it’s like, well he doesn’t make too many fowls so if I’m going to get him in my book I’ll probably have to do it with the first or second mistimed challenge.
Arsenals best forward play is when they’re over confident and looking for early goals. The problem is that the worst mistakes defending wise comes when over confident too. I think it’s true when they (people) say you need to show your opponents some respect, just don’t fear them though.
Hughes has copped onto the 5 in midfield 3 at the back formation. And it seems as if his players are feeling good about it. They’re not going to sit back and be dominated in possession either…
We need to turn up for this one. It looks to be tricky. Can’t just go by past accomplishments this time.