Arsenal play Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday in the Gunners’ second match of the new Premier League season.

After a thrilling win over Leicester, Arsenal head to Stoke, which I’m sure will be thrilling too. Arsenal’s record away against the Potters certainly isn’t great since they returned to the top division, with only two wins in nine.

However, there has been some improvement in recent years, as Arsenal haven’t lost to Stoke since 2014 and in their last visit in May ran out 4-1 winners. Hopefully they can continue this trend.

Team News

Shkodran Mustafi is in contention for a start after making the bench last week, and Mertesacker has recovered from his injury in the Community Shield. Laurent Koscielny is still suspended, and Gabriel will likely miss out as he looks to complete a move to Valencia.

Coquelin and Jack Wilshere took part in an u23s match this week as part of their recoveries, Francis will be available for selection on Saturday but Wilshere is more likely to play in the next u23 game on Monday.

Ramsey should also be available after his sub appearance against Leicester.

Alexis Sanchez is still out.

With all that in mind, here’s a predicted starting XI:

(3-4-2-1): Čech; Monreal, Mertesacker, Mustafi; Kolašinac, Xhaka, Ramsey, Bellerín; Welbeck, Özil; Lacazette.

The Opposition

Stoke put in a disappointing performance in their first game of the season, losing 1-0 to Everton and only managing a single shot on target.

They lost Marko Arnautovic to West Ham in the transfer window, but have made a couple of good loan signings, bringing in Kurt Zouma and Jesé on loan from Chelsea and PSG respectively.

It’ll probably be too soon for Jesé to get a start, but he could be involved from the bench.

How To Watch

The match kicks off at 17:30pm UK time on Saturday 19 August.

If you live in the UK, the TV channel showing the match is BT Sport 1. For all other countries, see the list below from LiveOnSat.com: