Bacary Sagna, who is widely expected to quit Arsenal at the end of the season, has praised Stoke City for the way they have changed their style of football in recent years.

The club had a reputation for playing long balls and having a physical approach to the games when they were managed by Tony Pulis. After several years under his management, the club finally decided to go in for the change. Former Manchester City and Blackburn Rovers manager Mark Hughes has been brought to the club in the summer.

Even though he has not made immediate changes to the style of play, Stoke City are clearly looking to play an attractive style of football. This has led to praise from Sagna, whose Arsenal team will travel to the Britannia stadium looking only for the second win in the last eight matches. This has not been a happy hunting ground for the gunners, but the Frenchman is confident that the club will be able to maintain their bid for the title by getting three points. After a comfortable first half of the season, the prospect of relegation does not appear to have gone away from Stoke City.

Hence, they will want to perform well and take three points from home matches.

“It’s difficult because there are a lot of battles [there]. They are a very athletic team but we want to impose our style of play, we want to play our football and we want to win because we want to stay in the position near the top of the league. I have to say they play even better football than before, they try to play football and it’s not going to be easy. They have a great desire to win,” Sagna said.
Sagna is out of contract at the end of the season.