Stoke Preview: Do It For Aaron + Koscielny & RVP Out 23 February, 2011

I can’t believe that this is the first meeting of Arsenal and Stoke since that infamous challenge that saw a young rising player take a major career-threatening setback. I was there last season and it will be exactly a year ago on Sunday. Very timely then that Aaron Ramsey returns to us this weekend and could be playing in 7 days against Leyton Orient. We’ve seen the affect of a terrible leg break can have on a player with both Diaby and Eduardo really struggling to continue their development and are still plagued my niggling injuries. Next to go through his rehabilitation is Ramsey who has had two loan spells in the Championship and makes his long awaited return as an Arsenal player this week.

It’s a shame that he couldn’t have made it a week earlier and played tonight but that would’ve brought up all kind of emotions. I don’t think Wenger would’ve played a distraction like that. Instead it’s a chance for his teammates to step up and be counted in a battle against a team that has become one of our most hated opponents. The relationship between Stoke/Tony Pulis and Arsenal/Arsene Wenger isn’t the happiest of ones and there will be no love lost in the fight for three points. It’s not just the Ramsey injury but rightly made comments about their more rugby than football tactics and crimes against fashion for baseball cap wearing twats.

It’s odd how a terrible injury can bring a team together. After losing Aaron in the game we went on to fight for a 3-1 victory and were looking good for the league, we allowed ourselves to forget the trauma of drawing to Birmingham after Eduardo’s similar anguish. We were able to turn a terrible loss into an inspiration for togetherness and the Do It For Aaron campaign was launched. Eventually our efforts died out and we dropped out of the title race but it brought this team together and it was great to see them fighting as one.

None of that needed to happen though and I’m still disgraced with Ryan Shawcross. All that ‘he’s not that type of player’ garbage was absolutely ridiculous. It happened with Eduardo too, both Shawcross and Taylor got loads more sympathy than the victims of their reckless violence. Just because our ‘foreigners’ aren’t England heroes like Rooney, Terry and Gerrard, the media seemed to back the perpetrators. It was ludicrous. Poor old Ryan Shawcross having to sit our three matches of his beloved game of football, think of trauma he must’ve gone through seeing a man’s leg snap in half. The boy needs a pat on the back and a warm cup of tea. Fuck that shit, Aaron’s been out for the best part of a year, had to endure unimaginable pain, months of rehabilitation and all under no certainty he would make it back playing again. All that just because he was trying to get the ball. Fuck you Ryan Shawcross, fuck you English tabloid press.

This might be the first meeting of Stoke and Arsenal since that day but don’t just think this is a one-game thing. Fans don’t forget, Stoke have found themselves right up there with the likes of Tottenham and Chelsea and I hope we give them a tough time tonight. Thankfully Aaron will return and he’s found himself some form at old club Cardiff, I’ve heard he’s been their best player recently, which is good. He scored last night and you can watch that goal here; Jay Emmanuel-Thomas also involved in the move.

Moving on to tonight’s game and we have van Persie, Koscielny and Diaby out, Robin has a hamstring issue which hopefully is not a bad one and Koscielny a back injury. Both could be back for Sunday though apparently. Djourou returns to the squad so I expect to see him start with Squillaci. When picking the team you have to at least take into consideration that Stoke’s approach will be aggressive. Wenger says he uses his intuition to pick the XI and he will have the best experience with who will handle this game better. I can only really see Theo Walcott losing a place in this game due to the nature of the opponents. He does seem stronger that he did last season or before but I have a suspicion he might be used from the bench tonight. I’ve always liked that option of bringing Theo on with 20-30 minutes to go anyway. So here’s my guess at the team:

Szczesny
Sagna – Djourou – Squillaci – Clichy
Song – Wilshere
Fabregas (c)
Nasri – Bendtner – Arshavin

The loss of van Persie is a shame but I believe the threat of Fabregas, Nasri and Arshavin should be good enough. It’s a big chance for probably Bendtner to impress from the start. I wasn’t pleased with Chamakh on Sunday so I don’t think he will start but this morning I was thinking back to earlier in the season when he was banging in the goals, they mostly came at home and he struggled a bit away. Still, with him being out of form and this match being against Stoke City Rugby Football Club I’d be surprised to see him start.

Arshavin’s been good though of late and Wenger describes that recent drop in form as a human loss of confidence. He’s very much on the road to form and has had a string of much improved displays. I’d back him for another goal tonight if I were a betting man. In fact I’ve just looked up the odds and he’s 11/2 first goal scorer or 13/8 to score anytime. That might be worth a quid or two from me. I was surprised in looking at those odds that Chamakh had the shortest odds, maybe they know something I don’t!

Tonight is another game in a very busy schedule, Arsene reckons it’s the busiest he’s ever been and we’re just starting to show the ill effects of all these games. We would never have drawn against Orient if we didn’t have to rotate the whole team and now we have these niggles with Djourou, Koscielny and RVP. It’s the manager’s job to find the right balance between rotation and delivering the wins and hopefully we’ll just about manage it. We don’t have another midweek break for three weeks with the FA Cup replay and Barcelona game coming up so hopefully we can avoid dropping points and players in that time.

We’re the only Premier League game tonight so it’s a chance to make some ground. I’m sure you know this game was rescheduled from December. I was actually on the way to the ground when that blizzard hit North London and I was surprised they left it so long before calling it off, never seen snow like it in London. We can go just a point behind United if we win tonight. They will have a game in hand over us but it’s great to be so close and put that kind of pressure on them.

Enjoy the game everyone that’s going, I can’t make it tonight but I’m going at the weekend. Ah bollocks I thought I’d make it through a whole post without mentioning Wembley, we need to forget about that until tomorrow and focus on the task of beating these despicable cunts.

Thanks for reading, come on you Gunners.