Stoke City are well and truly back from the dead with their third win in a row courtesy of their 3-1 victory against Swansea on a Halloween night in the bet365 Stadium. Former Swansea midfielder Joe Allen set up former Swansea striker Wilfried Bony twice for a brace and substitute Ramadan Sobhi forced an own goal from Swansea defender Alfie Mawson. Stoke were well deserving of their victory and it means that the Potters shoot up to 12th in the Premier League, leaving the likes of Swansea deep within the relegation zone.
There was one enforced change for Stoke ahead of the game: Geoff Cameron hyperextended his knee in training, so Charlie Adam stepped up to the missing midfield role alongside Glenn Whelan. Phil Bardsley was expected to miss the game, having had to deal with the passing of his grandfather last week, however he heroically turned up to play the game and save Mark Hughes a real selection headache with all other right back options unavailable. The absence of Cameron meant that there was space on the bench for Ramadan, making his first appearance in the 18 man squad since his marvellous performance in the EFL Cup fixture against Hull.
Stoke will look to continue to rise from the dead as they look for their third consecutive Premier League win, with Swansea standing in their way on a dark and (probably not) stormy Halloween night in the Potteries. With eight point in the last four matches, Stoke have certainly turned a corner following a frightful start to the season and, with coming up against a team that have tallied two points in their last eight league games, you’d have thought that Stoke will look to creep their way back up the league. Although the team’s general performances have improved, Stoke’s resurgence has been thanks to some spellbinding individual performances, for example: Lee Grant against Manchester United, Joe Allen’s remarkable goal-scoring run and Xherdan Shaqiri’s enchanting performance against Hull. Swansea will be looking to end their nightmare start to the campaign having not won a game since the opening day of the season; this might be easier said than done, with Swansea winning just three of their ten Premier League meetings with Stoke.
Kick Off: Monday 31/10/16 @ 20:00 – Live on Sky Sports MNF
Match Odds (as of night before): H: 21/20 – D:13/5 – A: 14/5
Last Season: 2-2 (I Afellay, Bojan; G Sigurdsson, A Paloschi)
The fixture list compiled with the Sky Sports Elves Goblins, has given Stoke our first appearance on Sky Sports’ feature show Monday Night Football. After the last match on MNF, the ‘great’ Red standoff, many are worried Stoke’s clash with Swansea will end the same way, so let’s see what warnings we can get from a breif history. Fun fact we didn’t feature once on MNF in Hughes’ first season so we can skip straight past that.
29th September 2014 Stoke 1 Newcastle 0
A Peter Crouch header from a Victor Moses cross gave the Potters the win in a match where only 4 shots on targets were managed a piece despite a grand total of 28 attempts. Hardly a thrilling occasion, and highlights were few and far between, lets all keep our fingers crossed that we get a slightly more exciting encounter.
Oh boy, I can see you scoring free kicks and it’s driving me crazy. Too much? Yeah I agree probably is, but here we are again looking back at how the ‘twittersphere’ reacted to another 2-0 win.
The day began slowly and goals were hard to come by for all teams in the Premier League, but when Shaqiri whacked home his first most were in agreement that it was worth the wait.
Stoke got revenge on their EFL Cup exit opponents Hull City away from home as they cruised their way to a consecutive 2-0 win in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon. Xherdan Shaqiri was at the double with two outstanding efforts to outweigh Hull’s feeble attempts to take the game to Stoke. After an incredibly poor start to the season, Stoke are now unbeaten in four games and have climbed out of the relegation zone for the first time since they entered it.
With Mark Hughes having seemingly found the formula for success, he decided to name the same starting eleven for the third game running. Phil Bardsley was a doubt running into the game having come off against Sunderland with half an hour to go, which would have caused a rather big selection problem with Glen Johnson also being unavailable. Fortunately the Scot was fit to return and enabled Stoke to progress into the game with the continuity from the last. All could change in a couple of weeks though with the news that Jack Butland is now training on grass for the first time since his re-injury.
What a difference a month makes, only 31 days ago Hull knocked the Potters out of the EFL Cup with a 2-1 victory at the bet365, but now the tables have turned and Stoke must be considered favourites. Hull have lost all games since the EFL Cup game, whilst the Potters are unbeaten in the same period. The host have conceded a whopping 13 goals in their last 3 games, whilst Mark Hughes men have only conceded 2 in the same period. Joe Allen will be pivotal to a successful result for Stoke, and he we also be aiming to be the first Stoke player to score in 4 consecutive Premier League matches.
Hull will be eager to make up for their 6-1 thumping away at Bournemouth, but if Stoke manage to get an early goal, much as they did against Sunderland, then the flood gates could open. Past fixtures suggest this is unlikely as the past 4 clashes have only managed to create 4 goals. Sparky meanwhile has never lost a match to Hull as a manager, and he will have no desire to change that today.
Injury News
The only worry for Stoke is the fitness of Phil Bardsley, who limped out of the Sunderland match with a hamstring injury. Sparky revealed that the Scot had not joined in training for the entire week, but he remained hopeful that Bardsley would be able to feature in today’s clash. Despite joining training this week the Hull match is coming too early for Jack Butland, who is only on light work, but Hughes is hopeful he will be available soon.
Hull News
Hull first team captain Michael Dawson will be available for the first time this season. However, the Tigers have suffered serious injuries to both first choice full backs Andrew Robertson and Moses Odubajo, which means Josh Tymon could be given a first ever senior appearance, making him one of the lowest Premier League earners, around 150 pounds per week.
Okay so I doubt that Mark Hughes will pay any attention to this, so maybe you don’t decide but we will try anyways. Every fan has been putting in their views as to which shape Stoke should use in their next fixture with Hull. So here is a collection of most of these ideas, and be sure to vote for your favourite formation in the blog at the end of the piece.
No Change 4-2-3-1
The so called ‘safe’ option and most likely for the Hull game, sticking with the 4231, with Whelan and Cameron as holding midfielders with Joe Allen ahead of them as the number 10. The main argument in favour of this formation is if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. This system has provided Stoke with 3 positive results gaining 5 points from a possible 9. Yes it may be defensive and keep key players out of the team but it has been getting results, and isn’t that all that matters at the end of the day?
I can’t believe it, we won a game of Premier League football.
Stoke City managed to comfortably win and gain their first three points of the season on Saturday afternoon and they cruised to a 2-0 victory against a poor Sunderland side at the bet365 Stadium. It was Joe Allen’s brace that sealed the deal, a header from an Arnautovic cross after 8 minutes and a smashing left foot hit just before half time. It was far from a perfect performance, but there was a huge improvement once again and Stoke made Sunderland look very ordinary indeed.
Stoke were granted with the news that Allen would be a doubt going into this game, however the current Mr Stoke City was passed fit to start in a largely unchanged lineup. The only change came in the form of Phil Bardsley, replacing Glen Johnson due to picking up an injury just before his England call-up which will keep him out for around a month.
Seven games have been played so far this season and Stoke and Sunderland are the only sides not to have found a win at this stage before they face off on Saturday at the Bet365 Stadium.
The last time Stoke got all three points against Sunderland in the Premier League was back in 2013, both teams will be desperate to leave the Bet 365 with smiles on their faces.
The Potters and the Black Cats find themselves in 19th and 20th position respectively, the likelihood of being last on Match of the Day is high, and have only managed 11 goals between them over 14 games. Goals will likely be at a premium in this one.
It is ten years since Rory Delap signed for Stoke, having previously played for our opponents, and although the playing style may have changed since his time on the pitch, this one could be a scrappy affair.
