Alexandre Lacazette preferred to Olivier Giroud for Arsenal at Stoke, but Alexis Sanchez out

Former Lyon striker Lacazette is given the nod ahead of Giroud, who came off the bench to head the winner during Arsenal's dramatic 4-3 victory over Leicester last Friday after Lacazette had given his new side an early lead.

Aaron Ramsey starts for Arsenal having scored the equaliser against Leicester with the Gunners trailing 3-2 while Shkodran Mustafi replaces Rob Holding. Per Mertersacker is on the bench for the visitors with Mohamed Elneny dropping out to join him on the bench.

But there remains no sign of Alexis Sanchez for Wenger's side. Sanchez is not even part of the 18-man squad.

Stoke hand a debut to former Real Madrid forward Jese Rodriguez, who has joined on a season-long loan deal from Paris-Saint Germain.

Stoke: Butland; Zouma, Shawcross, Cameron; Diouf, Allen, Fletcher, Pieters; Shaqiri, Jese; Choupo-Moting..subs: Grant; Johnson, Berahino, Martins-Indi, Crouch, Bojan, Ramadan.

Arsenal: Cech, Mustafi, Monreal, Kolasinac, Bellerin, Xhaka, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ozil, Welbeck, Lacazette..subs: Ospina, Mertesacker, Coquelin, Elneny, Iwobi, Walcott, Giroud