“To be perfectly honest the rest have slipped away a little bit and have been uncharacteristic in terms of what you would expect from them”. They play out from the back, they’ve improved a lot in the quality of their build-up game.
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“I’ve trained with him and he’s a good player, very talented but first of all he is a good guy – I think he will settle well into the team”, Giroud said.
Xherdan Shaqiri (hamstring) is out for the hosts and Geoff Cameron (ankle) also remains sidelined. Star players like Santi Cazorla and Alexis Sanchez have been on the sidelines for extended periods of time and the Gunners are perhaps starting to struggle without them, having only won two of their last four. The cold, hard statistics show that Arsenal have won 29 of 44 Premier League fixtures, drawing eight and losing seven.
This season, Arsenal are well-positioned to challenge for the Premier League title as they sit among the leaders after the halfway point. Marko Arnautovic (hip) is fine to feature.
Arsenal have failed such a test every year since February 2010, in contrast to an excellent run of eight successive home wins against the same opponents.
Arsene Wenger revealed that the club had been prepared since December for the signing of Elneny, and following the 3-3 draw with Liverpool at Anfield, the Arsenal manager confirmed his latest signing.
Arsene Wenger says clashes against Stoke City are even more aggressive than against Arsenal’s bitter rivals Tottenham. It will be a similar game to the one at Liverpool on Wednesday.
So, no bad feelings from Wenger, but he will be confident that a repeat of the incident will not happen on today as his team have only lost once in their last eight Premier League games. The week after it happened again, and again and again, since the start of the season. “That shows you that the consistency of your focus, the consistency of your determination will certainly play a big part in the outcome of this league”.
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And he will also watch how quickly last week’s £5million signing from Basel, Mohamed Elneny, adapts to his new surroundings, to assess whether the Egyptian is ready tp be plunged straight into English football.
