Stoke preview: a little revenge, please

Good evening to you.

It's Stoke City tomorrow and we finally have some good news on the injury front going into the game.

Team news update

"Ramsey is back in training, Ozil is back in training and Flamini is back in training. We’ve got three players back. Welbeck is still not available for Sunday because he is a bit short. Maybe next week he will be available. Giroud is back from suspension."

Apart from Welbeck we also have Arteta and (obviously) Wilshere out, but it's peanuts compared to even last week when we had Maitland-Niles on the bench and Alexis as a lone forward. Not that I have anything against the Chilean playing there, I'm just not sure he would if we had one of Giroud/Welbeck/Sanogo fit.

However, most of our problems seem to be in the past. With Welbeck and Arteta edging closer to full fitness we'll soon have to omit really good players from the bench, despite loaning out Podolski and having plans in place for loaning Campbell and Sanogo.

All of this finally gives us the opportunity to pick a proper squad.

The back five

The main question is who'll play in goal. I'll break the pros and cons of each choice down:

Playing Szczesny/Ospina:

1. The Pole will work very hard and will do his best not to disappoint. Especially after being backed by Arsene
2. Wojciech has more experience playing in the Premier League, let's not forget that

However:

1. Chezza's performance is going to be scrutinised should he start. If he makes another mistake, there'll be calls for his and the manager's heads
2. So it can probably be beneficial to all parties concerned to take Szczesny out of the firing line. Rest him, play Ospina and when the Colombian will have a downfall in form, people will be more condescending to Szczesny and will look at the young Pole through a more forging prism

I'm pretty sure we'll see Szczesny in goal tomorrow, as you wouldn't normally expect Arsene to drop a player after one bad performance, however, it remains to be seen just how important that smoking incident is for Wenger's decision.

As for the back four, I'm expecting our strongest one to start. That means a Debuchy-Per-Kos-Gibbs quartet. Keeping my fingers crossed they'll fare better tomorrow.

The midfield

Despite three midfielders returning from injury, it doesn't look like Wenger is drowning in options. That's why I'll be pretty surprised if we don't see a Ramsey-Flamini-Cazorla trio tomorrow.

While Ramsey for Rosicky is understandable (and kind of obvious), I'd still play Coquelin ahead of Flamini on the basis of what I've seen from Francis so far. However, I'm also pretty sure the manager has more faith in Flamini.

As for Cazorla/Ozil decision, it's the Spaniard for me. There are two reasons:

1. Wenger generally eases players back into action, don't see why he might change his mind with Ozil. We aren't in dire need of creating opportunities right now, no point in risking our best playmaker immediately upon his return from injury
2. It's Stoke we are playing. Not the most gentle of sides. Some of these enterprised individuals like to do this. For this reason alone I won't let Ozil anywhere near that lot

However, I'm also curious whether Arsene will want to revisit his 4-1-4-1 experiment, now that he has more midfielders at his disposal. Him not doing so tomorrow will mean nothing, however, so moving on.

The attack

Giroud and Alexis are guaranteed starters tomorrow, though it's intriguing who'll complement them. Walcott or Oxlade? Guess it'll depend on whether Theo is fully ready. Then again, he never will be unless he plays.

We also have to take into account the Ox played in every our game since the start of the season. Koscielny's return gave Chambers a chance to recover, with Ozil back Cazorla will also be able to take a break (maybe even tomorrow) and Alexis just seems to be superhuman. Out of 30 games he played in 29 (missed Gala away) and has 28 starts. I'll just stop saying Alexis needs a breather, he very obviously doesn't. But Oxlade is another story and Walcott's timely return may allow Arsene to rest the Ox.

The verdict

For me Stoke players are a bit like those pirates from the first part of the "Pirates of the Caribbean". At home they are ugly and undead (just like the pirates in the moonlight), away from home they are far less scary. And while our away record against them is truly atrocious, we have won our last six home games against the Orcs in a row. I'll be very surprised should we fail to get the three points tomorrow.

So come on you Gunners

And I'll be back with a customary review. Until then

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