Now that’s what I call a helluva five days, losing against Chelsea and Manchester City with the same scoreline, and of course crashing out of the Carling Cup with Arsene Wenger upset with Mark Hughes, opting not to shake hands and of course give the media reasons to bash us.

Hopefully, tomorrow we will ease some of the pressure in a game which on paper should be an easy one, but as always, you never know with the Gunners.

One thing I hope for – and I mentioned this earlier this week – is to read nothing ultra-optimistic if we win easily because we’ve been in this position last season and it was the optimism after easy wins which eventually killed our season because they were used as an excuse in disguise to forget the problems which the side is suffering from.

Stoke City

On the losing side when they last visited the Emirates, Tony Pulis’ side are 9th in the table, only 3 points from 5th-placed Liverpool. They have been doing so-and-so away from home but produced a fine win over Spurs on October the 24th with a late strike from Glenn Whelan.

Favourite line-up

Shall we rest one of the center backs and give Silvestre a go? Many think he did well against Manchester City and well he did if you forget two big mistakes in each half which usually mean conceding goals. But maybe two mistakes, only two, mean that the Frenchman is in form and deserves a go at Stoke.

With Song suspended, Denilson has to take his play unfortunately whilst as for the rest, I insist with the line-up I published for the Chelsea game, with Nasri on the right and Carlos Vela on the left with Andrey Arshavin moving up front to support Eduardo.

Pre-match Interviews

Tony Pulis declared his side will go at the Emirates facing what is – according to him – the best team in the country in terms of moving the ball around quickly.

He said:

We will go there and show Arsenal great respect because we know that on their day, they are quite capable of taking any team apart. Despite their recent results, they are still the best team in the country at moving the ball around quickly and finding pockets, all of which makes them so dangerous on the counter attack.

We will give it our best shot and I am sure everybody will relish the challenge. After all, a couple of years ago we were going to places like Scunthorpe and now we’re going to top, top grounds and facing top, top players in the Premier League.

This is what Arsene Wenger said after the Manchester City defeat and his decision to ignore Mark Hughes:

I don’t deny I am a bad loser but on this occasion I would have done exactly the same if we had won the game or lost the game.

I am in accordance with the principles I think are important on the football pitch and I maintain exactly what I said and did.

I am used to treating this kind of thing with the needed distance. I do not want to make a fuss. There are incidents on the touchline but you never heard me ever say anything about another manager after the game, in a press conference or after during the week.

I maintain exactly the way I behave and do not regret one second of what I did. If the world has no bigger problems than this then it is not so bad

The Gunning Hawk Coverage

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