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Preview: Stoke-ing the fire

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West Ham entertain long ball merchants Stoke City in Monday night’s match.

Background

Sam Allardyce first rose to prominence as the boss of direct footballing Bolton Wanderers but as he departed the Reebok Stadium, Stoke very much usurped their role and quickly garnered a reputation for long ball football with the added inclusion of Rory Delap’s long throws to really offend those who advocate keeping the ball on the floor.

Allardyce and Tony Pulis also employ similar tactics with the use of uncompromising midfielders (Noble – Nzonzi) tricky wingers (Jarvis – Etherington) and big men up front (Carroll – Crouch).

 

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The irony is that at the start of the season Allardyce may well have looked to Pulis’ Stoke for inspiration as a side who established themselves in the Premier League by playing results led football since promotion from the Championship.

Form

We have of course performed well above expectations and find ourselves up in the top seven while Stoke have struggled slightly find themselves 12th in the league.

This clash will also see two of the league’s tightest defences go head-to-head. Between us we have kept 10 clean sheets in 22 matches.

Previous match

We took a hard fought 3 points away to Newcastle United by securing a 1-0 victory whereas Stoke narrowly beat QPR thanks to Charlie Adam’s goal at home.

 

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Injuries

We have four injuries to contend with. Jack Collison (knee), Alou Diarra (thigh) and Ricardo Vaz Te (shoulder) are all still out, and Matt Taylor is still short of fitness after recovering from his calf problem.

Stoke meanwhile line-up without Marc Wilson (broken ankle), Michael Owen (training injury) and Dean Whitehead (suspended).

Possible line-ups:

West Ham: Jaaskelainen, Reid, Tomkins, McCartney, O’Brien, Diame, Benayoun, Noble, Nolan, Jarvis, Carroll.

Stoke: Begovic, Cameron, Shawcross, Huth, Wilkinson, N’Zonzi, Adam, Etherington, Whelan, Walters, Crouch.

 

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1 comment

  • Tony Cascarinonono! says:

    Great article. Looking forward to the match although I’ve got a nasty feeling about it! COYI

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