Stoke vs Arsenal Preview, Team News, Line-Ups, Betting Tips & Prediction

Arsenal will look to close-in on the top four with a win when we take on Stoke City at the Bet365 Stadium this evening.

We kept alive our hopes of qualifying for the Champions League after securing consecutive victories against Manchester United and Southampton over the past week.

The wins have seen us climb to fifth in the table and to within three points of fourth-placed Manchester City but Liverpool – who are a further point ahead – are the target as we have a game in hand on the Merseysiders.

If we beat Stoke tonight then we’ll close the gap to just a single point and really put the pressure on ahead of Liverpool’s trip to West Ham on Sunday afternoon.

However, defeat will almost certainly end any hopes of finishing in the top four so we need to improve upon our record at the Bet365 Stadium as we’ve won just one of our previous eight trips.

Stoke love to get one over us and despite having nothing left to play for, Mark Hughes’ side will be right up for this game so I’m expecting a tough match this evening.

Team News

Laurent Koscielny will face a late fitness test after missing the Southampton game due to a minor calf problem. The Frenchman has trained this past week so he should be close to returning to action.

However, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is out after limping off at St Marys in midweek with another hamstring injury – although Arsene Wenger is hopeful he’ll be back in time for the FA Cup final.

Otherwise we have a healthy squad to choose from with Santi Cazorla the only other long-term injury absentee but Wenger has said he may freshen things up so Olivier Giroud, Francis Coquelin and Hector Bellerin are pushing for recalls.

Stoke have no fresh injury worries to contend with so Ibrahim Afellay and Stephen Ireland remain their long-term injuries.

Likely Line-Ups

Predicted Score

Stoke 1-2 Arsenal: We have a terrible record away to Stoke having won just 12.5% of our matches their but the Potters haven’t been performing against the top 6 in front of their own fans this season after losing four of their five games so far. The hosts have very little to play for but I still expect a fiercely competitive game. It’s not going to be easy but hopefully we can edge it to bring home a vital three points.

Betting Tips

Arsenal are the 13/20 favourites to win this game with the bookmakers but we can get new customers enhanced odds of 25/1 on an away win this evening – just click here or above to take advantage of these crazy odds [winnings as free bet, £1 max stake, T&C’s apply].

Here are some other bets I like the look of:

• Both teams to score at: 8/13 – a £10 bet would return £16.10
• Exact score of 2-1 Arsenal at: 15/2 – a £10 bet would return £85
• Sanchez to score first in a 2-1 Arsenal win at: 18/1 – a £10 bet would return £190