ENGLISH PREMIER BETTING PICK - ARSENAL V STOKE CITY

English Premier

2010-12-18 - Arsenal vs Stoke City

A Sports Betting Pick by Addicted

ARSENAL v STOKE CITY
Football : England : Premier League
Saturday, December 18th, 2010 - Kickoff 3:00PM GMT

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ARSENAL

On Monday, Arsenal were overtaken at the top of the table by Manchester United courtesy a 1-0 defeat. In the absence of Fanianski, Szczesny, the other Polish goalkeeper made his league debut, and did pretty well in restricting Manchester United to just the one goal. He is expected to continue in goal here against Stoke City, in the first meeting with the side that knocked them out of last years FA Cup since Shawcross broke Ramseys leg. The swine.

Arsenal have not been dominant here at the Emirates this season, having dropped games to West Brom, Newcastle and the neighbours. With games lost at Chelsea and Manchester United and points dropped at Liverpool too, it is a huge surprise that Arsenal could go right back to the top of the table with a win here. Although beaten, Arsenal were not rolled over by United, and the players have done well in bouncing back and carving out a win somehow when playing after defeats, so I am confident they will do the same here.

The team is healthy enough with all the forwards in contention again, and while Cesc remains out, the emergence of Nasri as this years go-to-guy means I am not as worried as the media would have me be. The defence has been weakened by the loss of Vermaelen but the others are fit and capable of dealing with Stoke and their long ball philosophy.

The one thing I will say is that Fabianskis weakness was dealing with the aerial assault, which is pretty much Stoke's gameplan. There will be no chance of him flapping about here as his deputy, Szczesny is very tall and has a confidence I've not seen in any of our keepers since Lehmann, who famously went his first Arsenal season without knowing what it was like to lose a league game. I feel Szczesny is very much poised to become our No. 1. It is just a matter of time.

STOKE CITY

So, Tony Pulis brings his well behaved lot down to London for what will no doubt be a fiery encounter with the Gunners. Ramsey is well-loved by everyone at the club so expect the players to go and give it their all to get some form of revenge for the damage done to him by Shawcross.

Stoke are in 12th place, fairly safe from the relegation zone, but come into this off a loss at home to league surprise package Blackpool. They have lost the last 2 fixtures against Arsenal by 2 goals, and the one before that by 3, so I see no reason why Arsenal cannot put another confident spanking on them in their own backyard, especially with so much motivation behind them. Stoke are without a win in their last 3 matches.

I have already talked about the long ball tactics that Stoke like to utilise, but it's been a while since they stunned Arsenal with that 2-1 win by surprising them with the long ball. Since then all the encounters, except for that FA Cup fixture last year, have resulted in victories for the Gunners. Tony Pulis needs a new plan, but honestly, I cannot see them coming up with anything new. It's either long ball, or stick the team bus in front of the ball and play "negative football", because I don't see them having the balls to try and play football the way the likes of Blackpool or Bolton do these days.

BETTING VERDICT

Arsenal have lost 3 times at home already and won 5 times. What they haven't done is draw. I can't see them getting anything other than a win, and it seems the 1.30 on offer is a decent price for a selection that should be included in all accumulators.

For a straight bet, take Arsenal to win by 2 or more, which has more than a 50% likelyhood of happening and is yet available at 2.00 (Pinnacle)

The Statistics :

The Pick :

BEST BETTING TIP :

Take Arsenal to win @ 1.30 at PinnacleSports

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