Stoke City vs Arsenal: Arsène Wenger feels more mature team can handle the Potters

Manager convinced he has 'tougher' team for Potteries trip

Laurent Koscielny (left) and Per Mertesacker are one of the Premier League’s top defensive pairings (Getty)

The Hawthorns may be the highest ground in the Premier League, but for most of the last decade it has been the Britannia, a few miles up the M6, that has sent a chill down the necks of opponents – when they were not craning those necks to see the ball.

Not any more. Though the wind still freezes the bone as it whips between the stands, Stoke City – under Mark Hughes – play a passing game that can be as pleasing on the eye as any in the top flight. Arsenal thus go there on Sunday expecting more of a ‘football’ contest, in the purists’ sense, than in the past.

“I think they have gone a more technical way, a more creative way,” said Arsène Wenger on Friday, approvingly.

This should be more suited to the Premier League leaders’ game but, given the long-held enmity between the clubs, the Arsenal manager is not so naïve as to expect a gentle tippy-tappy game of the sort for which the Premier League’s academy competition is decried.

Rory Delap and Robert Huth may no longer play for Stoke but Ryan Shawcross remains their captain and the fans are the same. As both Manchester clubs and Chelsea have found this season, the Britannia remains a difficult place to go.

Arsenal have won one and lost five of their eight matches in the Potteries since Stoke returned to the top flight in 2008 – compared with eight wins in eight in home matches – and Wenger said: “it’s always a test for us, as our record shows, but it’s interesting as well because it’s a mental test, to show that we have moved forward and we can deal with what Stoke offer.”

Pondering the difference in the home and away records he added, “at home our game is easier to play. They had as well, for years, that narrow pitch, where every throw-in just after halfway was a corner kick. When [Rory] Delap played, just after halfway, you had a corner.”

It was with good reason that ‘can he do it on a wet Tuesday in Stoke?’ entered the lexicon as the ultimate test of a foreign player’s fitness for the British game. In his Evening Standard column on Thursday, Harry Redknapp described how he would spend all week trying to find a way to deal with Delap’s long throw-ins, not just defending them directly but seeking to shape the game in such a way that Delap had few opportunities to launch them.

Whether Arsenal took such pains in preparation is unknown. Wenger often gives the impression he does not worry about the opposition and that he believes that as long as Arsenal play to their best, they will win.

However, he admitted Arsenal were too callow in those matches to impose their own game. “When we had a very young team they had a style that was a bit rough for us and we couldn’t always cope with it,” he said. “They had a very efficient, traditional English style that nobody liked to play against, and at home, it is as well, a very windy stadium.”

Tony Pulis gave way to Hughes in 2014 but Stoke has remained a daunting venue for Arsenal. Last season’s defeat was followed by a group of Arsenal fans viciously abusing Wenger at Stoke-on-Trent railway station. It was one of the lowest points of his reign and not many thought then that, just 13 months later, he would have steered a revived Arsenal side to the Premier League summit.

“Last year we went to Stoke with a very young defence,” said Wenger. “We had [Hector] Bellerin, [Calum] Chambers, [Emiliano] Martinez… At the start of the game we were a bit caught.”

They also had Per Mertesacker, captain for the day, but his performance was witheringly dissected by Jamie Carragher. “You talk about leadership, you talk about the character that Wenger always goes on about after the game. He’s abandoned ship. He’s left the young players on their own and abandoned ship. It’s just not acceptable,” said Carragher of the World Cup-winning veteran.

Mertesacker looked then as if his time was up, but he and Laurent Koscielny have re-established themselves as one of the league’s best defensive pairings, notwithstanding the chaotic midweek 3-3 draw at Anfield.

That was the first leg of Arsenal’s week on the road. Having twice been behind, but leading in the 90th minute, Wednesday’s match could be viewed as either a point gained or two lost.

Wenger seemed to take the upbeat view, but he knows he needs a good result tomorrow before facing another team with a habit of unsettling his players, Chelsea, next week.

No side has gone on to win the Premier League after losing at Stoke but Wenger insisted his players now have the character to cope. When asked if his team was “tougher” he resisted any temptation to reprise Ed Milliband and declare “Hell, yes”, but said “Look, [Petr] Cech is 34, Mertesacker 30, Koscielny 30, [Nacho] Monreal 30. Before we had not the same level of experience.

“I think we are tougher. We feel stronger. We have moved forward in 2015. The biggest hurdle was to win the big games. That makes you feel stronger. We have beaten City, United, so we can do it anywhere else.”