Why Trips to Stoke Used to Hold Fear for Arsenal but Not Any More

After a draining 3-3 encounter with Liverpool on Wednesday, Arsenal must have been hoping for a relatively comfortable fixture on Sunday.

Unfortunately, the Gunners have no such luck; it’s another away trip, this time to Stoke City. Since Stoke came in to the Premier League in 2008, they have been notoriously difficult opponents for Arsene Wenger’s men. However, it’s time for Arsenal to end that hoodoo. If they are potential champions, there’s no reason why they should not go to the Britannia Stadium full of hope rather than horror.

Arsenal’s record in the Potteries is, admittedly, not good. The Gunners have not won away at Stoke since February 2010, when goals from Nicklas Bendtner, Cesc Fabregas and Thomas Vermaelen were enough to secure a 3-1 victory. That feels an age ago—the fact not one of those players remains at Arsenal tells its own story.

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Since then, Stoke have hosted Arsenal five times in the Premier League. There have been three wins for the home side and two draws. Across that period, Arsenal have only mustered two goals against their bogey team.

Few defeats have been more harrowing than the one suffered at Stoke last season. In that fixture, Arsenal found themselves 3-0 down and out of the game by half-time. Although they fought back to make it 3-2 by full-time, the damage had been done. As the team embarked the train back to London, they were barracked and abused by a furious minority of the Arsenal fanbase.

At that time, Wenger was under enormous pressure, and it briefly seemed like that loss at Stoke could be the straw that broke the frail camel’s back.

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Wenger took the abuse with his customary philosophical grace. In Friday's pre-match press conference, he said, relayed by Hamish Mackay of the Mirror:

"

I took it as people were upset. I didn’t take it personally. I was sad and upset more by the result than the reactions of people.

I can understand when you love a club you want the results to be positive. That problem will be more common now. I think it will be a problem in the next two-three years. I see it in France and many countries.

"

The Arsenal manager set about fighting back with typical resilience after that defeat. Within a matter of weeks, he had won a crucial match away to Manchester City, which transformed the fortunes of both manager and team. Arsenal consigned the Stoke defeat to memory, embarking on a brilliant 2015 that would see them claim the FA Cup and finish the calendar year on top of the Premier League table.

It’s that transformation that will have Wenger believing he can improve his record at Stoke. Ahead of Sunday, he sounded optimistic that change is on the way, per the Mirror: "We have struggled in recent years. But they also have a good home record against [Manchester] United [and] City. They have improved their creative potential. They can create, they can play. It’s a good challenge for us."

Although Stoke’s new-found attacking potential theoretically makes them a more dangerous team, it might make them easier for Arsenal to deal with. Under Tony Pulis, Stoke were an agricultural, one-dimensional side. The reason the Gunners struggled to cope with them was because of the Potters' focus on set pieces and mounting an aerial assault. To a highly technical, diminutive Arsenal team, Pulis’ Stoke were like kryptonite.

However, they’re a different team now. With players such as Bojan Krkic, Marko Arnautovic and Xherdan Shaqiri at his disposal, manager Mark Hughes has been able to implement a different style of football. Stoke are arguably one of the Premier League’s more attractive sides.

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That’s not to say they’ve lost all of their physical threat. The likes of Ryan Shawcross and Jonathan Walters provide a burly throwback to the Pulis days and will ensure Arsenal are sorely tested on Sunday. However, this is a sturdier Arsenal team than ever before.

2015 was the year in which Francis Coquelin broke into the first team on a full-time basis, and although he’ll be missed at the Britannia, there are plenty of other reasons to hope Arsenal can resist Stoke.

With the notable exception of away games against Bayern Munich, Southampton and Liverpool, Arsenal’s defence has been very reliable this season.

Replacing full-backs Kieran Gibbs and Mathieu Debuchy with the Spanish pair of Nacho Monreal and Hector Bellerin has helped enormously—there probably isn't a better pair of full-backs in the Premier League. In the centre, Laurent Koscielny’s partnership with Per Mertesacker continues to grow in strength. Few defensive pairings have such a balanced, cohesive relationship.

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The addition of Petr Cech is also a massive help. In the past, Arsenal’s struggles against teams such as Stoke were often related to their problems with the goalkeeping position. On several occasions, the Polish pair of Wojciech Szczesny and Lukasz Fabianski struggled to cope with the swirling winds and whipped crosses at the Britannia. Neither of those 'keepers is still at the club, and in their stead, Cech provides plenty of hardened Premier League experience.

Cech has been there and done it all in the English game, and a few aerial challenges aren’t going to be enough to worry him. With a more sturdy defensive platform in place, Arsenal should be able to express themselves at Stoke this time around.

Psychologically, this feels like a different team to previous incarnations of Wenger’s Arsenal. As difficult as their night at Anfield was, Arsenal showed the requisite guts to remain in a game that was never in their control. Their internal fires are fuelled by the knowledge there is a real chance of winning the Premier League this season.

With the Gunners sat at the top of the table, every fixture feels like a cup final in its own right. Week in and week out, Arsenal are fighting to stay at the summit of the league.

At this point, they cannot allow themselves to be spooked by ghosts of the past. It is time for Wenger and his team to overcome the fear a trip to the Britannia once held. Arsenal should be making history, not frightened of it.

James McNicholas is Bleacher Report's lead Arsenal correspondent and is following the club from a London base throughout 2015/16. Follow him on Twitter here.