Wenger and Clichy confident of handling Delap

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
27 Feb	3:00 PM	P	Stoke City (A)	3	1	Win

Both manager Arsène Wenger and defender Gaël Clichy have said that they are confident of defending against the long throw-ins from Stoke's Rory Delap.

No one is expecting an easy match as Stoke are currently unbeaten in 2010, and we haven't won at Stoke since 1990, a 1-0 win in the FA Cup.

Wenger explained: "You can try [to practice defending them] but it's difficult because the ball is so flat.

"As well, there are so many people in the box that sometimes for the keeper [it's difficult].

"You see Shay Given on Wednesday night [when Stoke beat Man City] – his own defenders became a problem for him, because when the strikers pushed the defenders a little bit back, he doesn't come out.

"He doesn't reach the ball because of his own defenders in his way. You get your hand out and he didn't get to the ball."

Clichy warned that there was more to Stoke than Delap's long throws, but added that the team were training to defend against them.

The Frenchman said: "It's funny because usually you try not to give a corner and you put the ball into a throw-in and against them I think it's better to concede a corner than a throw-in.

"For me it's really impressive that he is able to do this and even more to use it, because if we had a player like this in Arsenal I'm not sure we'd be able to use this weapon to win a game.

"But they know how to do it and we know they're going to look for those type of situations and we are ready for it.

"I think it's so much easier when you have players who are nearly two metres high, then a player like me who is 1.60m. It's not the way we play and that's the way they play, but we have to match this challenge and I think we can.

"We trained during the week to make something happen and I'm sure we will do it."

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