Although many a fan and pundit alike has slammed Stoke’s ‘direct’ style of play over the years, Wenger has now taken a chance to slate the Potters, claiming that people used to dislike playing against them.

Speaking ahead of our match in the Premier League on Sunday at the Britannia Stadium, the boss decided this was the time to criticise the way Stoke used to play.

“Over the years they had a very efficient, traditional English style which nobody liked to play against and it is as well a very windy stadium,” the boss said.

“And let’s not forget for years they had that narrow pitch where every throw-in beyond halfway was a corner when Rory Delap played.”

Harsh. Harsh but fair.

Fortunately (although I’m not sure not for who) since Mark Hughes took over, their style of play has developed and they’ve combined elements of their old style with a new one.

Last time we played away to Stoke, we had to deal with an embarrassing 3-2 defeat and this isn’t the first time, since our record when travelling up there isn’t too great.

Wenger believes we’re over this now and are in a far better position to when we suffered our defeat at the Britannia last season.