Premier League Week 2-Write up Stoke v Arsenal

Stoke 0-0 Arsenal
Everyone who watches the Premier League knows about the love-hate relationship between Arsene Wenger and Stoke City, it's fair to say that this match will not ease his dislike of a team that seem to have become his nemesis in recent years.

Stoke have made a habit of not losing games over the past few seasons and have an excellently drilled defense that often refuses to be breached and that's again what happened as they bent and buckled but refused to snap to relentless Arsenal pressure. In fact it was Arsenal's defense that seemed to be broken early in the game as Jonathan Walters put the ball in the Arsenal net inside the first 10 minutes before the goal was ruled out. It was as close as either team came to breaking the dead lock.

Arsenal, via Santi Cazorla and Mikael Arteta dominated the game with two Spaniards pulling all the strings in the middle though the organised Stoke back 4 managed to hold out and really limited the solid chances Arsenal had. Whilst at the other end Peter Crouch was effectively played out of the gme by Per Mertesacker and Thomas Vermaelen who seemed to show Steve Pulis' men that Arsenal had manned up this year.

For Steve Pulis this was a point well earned as his team were on the back foot for much of the game and they proved that they are defensively as sound as ever. Whilst they couldn't really get into the game going forward with only a handful of half chances they proved to be resolute and solid at the back. The Stoke fans may feel a slight aggreived not to have had a penalty in the second half but it would have been very soft to have awarded a penalty for the coming together in question and all in all they were lucky to get  apoint.

Arsene Wenger hasn't tried to hide his dislike of Stoke over the years and he will again be seething whilst feeling that his team had enough chances to bag all 3 points. He knows Stoke are physical however he'll have been pleased by the fact that his players refused to be kicked off the pitch however the wasted chances will really annoying him, especially given how much of the game they bossed. Once again Santi Cazorla looked exceptional and controlled the game for the second match running however it was Mikael Arteta who perhaps deserved all the plaudits as he was the one who was fidning Cazorla in space.

Notes-
Arsenal have been involved in both of the 0-0's so far
Stoke failed to get a single corner whilst Arsenal had double figures.

Week 2-Predictions (Sunday)

Due to other commitments I've not managed to preview either of Sunday's games, I will however give a short preview of both games as well as a preview in here.

Stoke v Arsenal (13:30)
It's probably fair to say that Stoke v Arsenal is one of those weird games that draw the neutrals in due to the fact one of the managers (in this case Arsene Wenger) publicly hates the other teams. Stoke are a physical side and this has upset Wenger repeatedly in the past as he feels his players get given a particularly hard time by the Potters who often feel Wenger's men need to "man up". I have a feeling that this time around Wengers men will man up. I have a feeling Lukas Podolski will enjoy the physical match up and may even thrive in this fixture as Arsenal put the draw with Sunderland behind them and play catch up with Chelsea.
Whilst the Britannia Stadium may be seen as a fortress Wenger's men have a point to prove.

Prediction 2-0 Arsenal

Liverpool v Manchester City (16:00)
Losing isn't an option for Brendon Rodgers' team however Manchester City don't make a habit of dropping points. Rodgers will know that the everybody is watching his first game in charge at Anfield and he will also know that Liverpool need at least a point just to kick start their season after a horror show against West Brom. Sadly Rodgers doesn't appear to have added much to Liverpool yet and they looked decidedly disorganised against West Brom. Unless they tightened up considerably here they could be onto a hiding to nothing against a Manchester City team who love to score. Yes City looked poor against the Saints last weekend but they won, it's unlikely they will play that badly here.

Prediction 1-3 Manchester City

Premier League Week 1-Write up Reading v Stoke City

Reading 1-1 Stoke City
Reading made their return to the Premier League thanks to winning automatic promotion last year with best defensive record in the Championship. Their first game back in the top flight saw them taking on a Stoke City side that had struggled to score through out the previous season (scoring just 36 goals in 38 games), it was perhaps obvious that this wasn't going to be a goal fest, though both teams had invested in quality attackers with Stoke signing Michael Knightly whilst Reading managed to pick up Pavel Pogrebnyak.

It was Stoke's Michael Kightly that opened the scoring with a fair amount of help from Reading keeper Adam Federici who really should have stopped Kightly's shot in the 34th minute which seemed to go through the keeper. Whilst Reading tried to get back in to the match they really struggled. With the clock ticking down Dean Whitehead was shown his second yellow card after fouling Garath McCleary in the penalty area. Up stepped Adam Le Forde who managed to draw Reading level with just minutes to play.

With 10 men Stoke struggled to hold on with an Ian Harte free-kick being the nearest either team got to scoring a late winner before the referee finally blew the whistle to bring the match to an end at 1-1.

Reading's manager Brian McDermott should be proud of his team who showed determination and managed to get a well deserved point by refusing to give up. Whilst Federici's blunder certainly hurt Reading's chances in the match they showed enough to be proud of and Federici is usually a reliable keeper, so I'm happy to just out this down to being a one off. Pogrebnyak is an excellent signing though they fail to really provide him with the service he needs, however as the team gels he'll be a very influential player. If they cannot open up defenses however Reading will be in the same position Stoke where they were closer to the drop zone than they would have liked.

For Tony Pulis he may well view the match as 2 points lost and not 1 point earned however he needs to be pleased at the fact Michael Kightly looked excellent today and Robert Huth, who had been an injury worry looked to be fully fit with an excellent performance. After last season's lowly goal target the addition of Kightly looks to have been an excellent bit of business who should help Stoke bang them in with more regularity. If Stoke can score more whilst keeping the likes of Huth fit they should be a secure mid table team.