• Premier League

Wenger calls for 'committed' Stoke to play fair

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has called for a "committed" Stoke side to play fair when the pair meet in Saturday's Premier League clash at the Britannia Stadium.

There has been plenty of animosity between in the two sides in recent years; Ryan Shawcross was sent off for a challenge which left Aaron Ramsey with a broken leg in February 2010, while Wenger previously compared Stoke to a "rugby" side during Tony Pulis' tenure.

Shawcross stated Arsenal face a hostile atmosphere this weekend but Wenger is not concerning himself with such hype and hopes his side will build on their three-game winning run.

"This is a football game, not a hate game and we want to focus on playing football," said Wenger. "It's always a tough place to go, a very committed place when you go there. They don't lose many games at home and have good records against many big teams.

"We prepare ourselves to be at the level of their commitment and dictate the way we want to play. Not to forget to play our game is the most important. They have a little bit of a different style [since Mark Hughes replaced Tony Pulis as Stoke boss], but against us it is always a committed game.

"We are in a job when you have risks and the physical risk is part of our job, we accept that. What you want is to go into every game with everyone being committed and fair. We accept accidents can happen, but you do not want to have any suspicion before the game starts."

A succession of injuries to high-profile players, such as Mesut Ozil and Jack Wilshere, have hampered Arsenal's momentum and often denied Wenger from fielding his strongest side, which he believes would be capable of challenging Chelsea for the Premier League title.

"It is frustrating," Wenger conceded when asked to sum up his mood over his ongoing injury problems. "This year is a little bit of a post-World Cup trauma and we lost too many players together at the wrong period.

"Having said that, we have only played 14 games and there is 24 to go. Hopefully in the next 24 games, we will have everyone available."

Wenger was then asked whether he believed his best team would be a match for every Premier League rival and he responded: "I believe so, yes."

That claim is likely to spark plenty of debate among Premier League supporters, with Arsenal currently 13 points behind leaders Chelsea.

Arsenal's fortunes, though, appear to be turning as Wenger offered a positive injury update on his first choice keeper Wojciech Szczesny and full-back Mathieu Debuchy. However, he admitted Theo Walcott is still struggling with the groin injury he picked up while on international duty with England last month.

"Szezsney should be back today in full training. I don't know if he will be back for Stoke," he added. "Debuchy is back in training as well. He is short to play [at Stoke]. The earliest he will be available is Tuesday [against Galatasaray].

"We might take him because he are short number wise. The hardest part when a player has been out for three months is do you put him straight back and he could have a big setback."

Central defender Laurent Koscielny is also struggling for Arsenal with a recurrence of his inflamed Achilles tendon.

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