French Fancy

Arsenal may have endless strife at the Britannia Stadium, but back on home territory it’s most definitely Stoke who feel the pain. The Potters have lost their last 12 trips to the Emirates in all competitions.

The bookies are wise to this and nobody offers longer than 1/2 on yet another home victory, but we can easily improve on this. Olivier Giroud is a best price 17/10 (Ladbrokes) to find the net with Arsenal winning and that could be a sound option.

In many ways the Frenchman has had a disaster of a season having picked up a serious injury back in August which ruled him out for three months. He then got sent off on Boxing Day for a moment of madness.

The 28-year-old finally makes a return to action on Sunday but we should expect him to hit the ground running. Giroud has actually scored 5 league goals having only started 5 league matches in 2014-15 showing that his potential return is very high indeed.

Averaging a goal every 92 minutes, his strike-rate is up there with the best in the business.