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Preview: Stoke v Arsenal, team news, line-up & prediction

By on January 16, 2016

joel campbell arsenal

Arsenal will be looking for a positive result against Stoke at the Britannia Stadium tomorrow in order to move back to the top of the Premier League table.

We certainly missed a great opportunity to put some distance between us and the chasing pack when we conceded an injury-time equaliser at Liverpool in midweek.

We’ve now dropped to third in the table after seeing Man City beat Crystal Palace while Leicester are one point clear after drawing at Aston Villa this evening.

So a point would be enough to see us reclaim top spot on goal difference but obviously we’d like to restore our two point advantage by bringing home a much-needed victory from the Britannia tomorrow.

Team News

Sanchez could be back in the squad  if he’s proved his fitness to Wenger in training over the past two days but I personally wouldn’t risk him from the start.

New signing Elneny is in the frame to make his debut after being registered in time following his move from Basel last week but I think a place on the bench is the best he can hope for tomorrow.

Rosicky is back in full training after missing the entire season so far with a serious knee injury but he’s going to need to get at least another week’s training under his belt before he’ll be under consideration.

Wilshere, Welbeck and Coquelin have begun light training but they are all at least 2-3 weeks away from making their injury returns so they remain on the sidelines with Cazorla.

Preferred line-up

Campbell has been outstanding in recent games so there is no need to rush Sanchez back. The only change from Liverpool I’d like to see is Gabriel coming in at the back for Mertesacker. Stoke are a decent footballing side these days and have pace in attack so I’d prefer to see the more mobile Brazilian line-up alongside Koscielny at the back.

Prediction

Like I said earlier, Stoke are actually a pretty good team these days and have some dangerous players like Arnautovic, Krkic and Shaquiri [although he’s out of tomorrow’s game] so we’ll certainly have to be on top of our game at the back. However, we have plenty of attacking power ourselves and I think we’ll have too much for the hosts tomorrow afternoon.

Stoke 1-3 Arsenal

COYG!!!

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