Chelsea v Stoke City: match preview

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Chelsea v Stoke City
Stamford Bridge
Kick-off: 17.30 BST.
TV: Live, Sky Sports 1, Highlights, BBC ONE Match of the Day.

Chelsea (Possible, 4-3-3): Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Luiz, Matic, Lampard; Schürrle, Torres, Hazard.
Out: Eto'o (hamstring), Mikel (unspecified), Ramires (suspended), van Ginkel (knee).

Stoke (Possible, 4-1-4-1): Begovic; Cameron, Shawcross, Wilson, Pieters; Whelan; Odemwingie, Ireland, N'Zonzi, Arnautovic; Crouch.
Out: Assaidi (knee), Huth (knee).

Referee: Lee Probert. Matches: 15, R2 Y21.

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N'Zonzi : Arsenal are soft touches

Stoke City midfielder Steven N'Zonzi insists that Arsenal remain soft touches and believes that they need to show greater resilience if they are to sustain a challenge for the Premier League title.

The north Londoners' quest for a first league title since 2004 suffered a significant blow at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday when a Jonathan Walters penalty condemned Arsene Wenger's side to a defeat which leaves them four points behind leaders Chelsea.

The Gunners have won only one of their last seven games away at Stoke and again struggled to assert themselves against Mark Hughes's side on Saturday.

"We know that Arsenal play good football but, when you start kicking them a little bit, it gets harder for them," N'Zonzi told the press.

"They don't like it, we know that. We don't care. We'll keep on doing it, being strong and trying to be as good as we can be on the ball.

"It's not a surprise they have been moaning because they have plenty of technical players."

Asked if Arsenal needed to demonstrate greater resilience, N'Zonzi replied: "Yes - this is how Premier League football is. It's really good, it's really strong."

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Stoke City vs Manchester City / Possible Line-ups

Saturday, September 14 2013

Stoke City v Manchester City

Kick-off: 16.00 CET.

Possible Lineups

Stoke (Possible, 4-4-1-1): Begovic; Cameron, Shawcross, Huth, Pieters; Arnautovic, N'Zonzi, Ireland, Etherington; Walters; Jones. 

Out: Adam (back), Jones (ankle), Whelan (hamstring).

Manchester City (Possible, 4-4-2): Hart; Zabaleta, Nastasic, Lescott, Kolarov; Fernandinho, Touré, Milner; Nasri, Negredo, Agüero.
Out: Demichelis (knee), Kompany (groin), Richards (hamstring), Silva (thigh), Clichy (unspecified).

Referee: Mark Clattenburg. 

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