STOKE CITY were once Arsenal’s bogey team – but they used to get under the skin of their Prem rivals before they even took to the pitch.
The Potters gave the Premier League giants a torrid tussle each and every time they welcomed them to Britannia Stadium.
Former Stoke gaffer Tony Pulis guided his old side to three of their six wins over the Gunners during their ten-year stint in the Prem.
Arsenal were often accused of failing to turn up for their trips to Staffordshire – with some critics going as far as to say they were intimidated before they took to the pitch.
The retired Rory Delap was part of several Stoke sides who were victorious in the tempestuous and tasty matches.
And he’s revealed they were instructed to rile up Arsene Wenger’s troops by standing tall and stamping on their studs before they walked out of the tunnel.
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The 46-year-old told The Sport Bible: “I think the thing was during that period they had such good players.
“But they probably didn’t have characters like your Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Patrick Vieira and Dennis Bergkamp.
“I think in that period, they had really good players so when you played Arsenal at the Emirates, it was a completely different game.
“It was when they played at Stoke, we made no bones about it, we had to make the best of what we had.
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“I could remember the manager said, ‘When you’re in the tunnel, stamp your studs and stand on your tiptoes.’
“At that stage, we had players like Rob Huth, Ryan Shawcross, myself, Glen Whelan and Mama Sidibe, so we were a big side and it was intimidating.”
Delap – who retired from footie in 2013 – admits he himself would’ve been rattled by his former team-mates’ pre-match tunnel tactics.
He said: “It’s intimidating when you come down the tunnel and you see lads a couple of inches taller than you.
“It has to be, you know what I mean?”
Gunners icon Wenger wasn’t afraid to voice his fury at perceived wrongs when his troops came up short at the Britannia.
The Frenchman also wasn’t shy to voice his displeasure with the Potters before their clashes.
And one pre-match complaint lives long in the memory of Delap.
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He recalled: “I think Wenger moaned about the length of the grass before a game once.
“And we’d heard about this and we thought before the game ‘We’ve got them already.'”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
