Arsenal have a rather...unpleasant history against Stoke. There's the obvious Ryan Shawcross thing, there's last year's loss followed by a train station shoutdown of Arsene Wenger, and there's Marko Arnautovic's mugging of Mathieu Debuchy, which broke his shoulder. If this were 1986, there'd be fights on the pitch every game after a history like that; as it is, though, there's just a general dislike of all things Stoke and a desire to escape the Britannia uninjured and undamaged.
Stoke currently sit seventh in the Premier League, with three wins in their last four; they're missing Xherdan Shaqiri and Geoff Cameron, but have an otherwise full squad including leading scorer Arnautovic, who missed last week with a hip problem.
Arsenal, meanwhile, might see new signing Mohamed Elneny play a part - probably not a starting, 90 minute part, but he's eligible for selection, so we may see him as a substitute. Still no conclusive word on Alexis Sanchez, who is theoretically ready to go although I've seen him listed as "doubtful" in a few places, so I wouldn't bet on his appearance.
Stoke away games are always tricky - yes, Arsenal beat Stoke 2-0 at the Emirates in September, but now it's January, they're at home and pushing hard for a European place. They're never a pushover in the best of times, so Arsenal have to be firing on all cylinders to make good things happen on Sunday.
With City playing Crystal Palace and Leicester being handed three points by Aston Villa on Saturday, Arsenal could wake up Sunday in third place. If that's not motivation to conquer the Stoke away bogeyman, I don't know what is.