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Mark Hughes warns Arsenal in for usual test at Stoke

Jon Walters scores for Stoke during a 3-2 win over Arsenal that led to Arsene Wenger being harangued by his own club's supporters
Image: Jon Walters scores for Stoke during a 3-2 win over Arsenal last season

Mark Hughes has warned Arsenal Stoke's new-found flair will not mean an easier ride at the Britannia this weekend.

Arsene Wenger will be in for his usual barracking from supporters who have not forgotten his dismissal of Tony Pulis-era City as having "rugby" tactics.

Stoke's style may have changed since those days, as Wenger himself has acknowledged, but the club's good home record against Arsenal has not been affected.

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The current Premier League leaders have lost on their past two visits to the Potteries and have won there just once since Stoke won promotion in 2008.

And ahead of the Super Sunday meeting Hughes said: "Our record is good. It's a record we'd like to think we can expect to maintain.

"It's something that we're proud of. We've always caused good Arsenal teams here real problems, even before my time. It's something that we want to continue, something we have the capability of doing.

Wenger was confronted by a group of Arsenal fans as he boarded a train in Stoke
Image: Arsene Wenger is regularly barracked by home supporters at the Britannia Stadium

"We may play in a slightly different way to other times when they've struggled here. In the last couple of occasions we've gone up against them at the Britannia, we've played a different type of football but still caused them problems.

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"Either way they know they're going to be in a game that's intense, with high quality, and questions will be asked of them."

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Stoke City boss Mark Hughes said the club will only be active in the transfer window if the right player becomes available