Stoke teaches Man City a lesson of heart with 1-0 win

A hearty crowd of over 27,000 at Britannia witnessed Stoke City provide the Citizens a brilliant lesson of playing with heart in route to a 1-0 victory. With the Potters faithful sang out Delilah with gusto it was obvious through grit and determination the club with all the odds stacked against it wasn't about to take relegation easy and fought off Manchester City with a curmudgeonly defensive stance.

Mark Hughes side opened the match with more than a morsel of resolve and controlled ball possession. Whether the Citizens lacked the inspiration or creativity to break through Stoke's defending wall is a point of debate yet there is no questioning the heart of Tony Pulis' side. The back four of Abdoulaye Faye, Danny Pugh, Andy Wilkinson and Ryan Shawcross drew the line that City dare not cross and young Mr. Shawcross proved once again why many see a bright future for him.

That being said, Man City had its opportunities and quite obviously with the scoreline wasted each. Just shy of the twenty minute mark an electrifying counter-act saw Wales international draw the ball to Robinho but the resulting strike from the top of the box was a woeful schoolyard mess as it dribbled to Stoke keeper Thomas Sorensen.

That encounter seemed to wake the hosts up and as their confidence grew they began to launch a series of menacing challenges towards the City goalmouth. However eight minutes before the half the match took a decided turn and oddly seemed to hinder the Citizens effort as it spurred a siege mentality by Stoke. Following a series of dangerous challenges, first by Shaun Wright-Phillips and a retaliation by Rory Delap, the Stoke man was shown an immediate red-card by referee Martin Atkinson. While the card was just unfortunately an additional lash Shaun Wright-Phillips, deserving of expulsion was missed and Stoke were forced to play a man down.

Yet that did not stop the hearty lot as four minutes into added time Matthew Etherington sent a perfect cross that Micah Richards seemed not worthy of defending across, to a soaring James Beattie with the Sheffield United nodding to the near post. Britannia erupted and it was very clear the tactical play that Tony Pulis would use at the restart.

Playing well behind the ball the Potters held strong with impenetrable defending. While Robinho made a number of noble attempts, finishing and shot selection was dreadful. On a number of occasions he sent some perfectly weighted balls but the play-making vision of his teammates was lacking and the match concluded with Stoke winning 1-0.

Naturally a loss is difficult but as the squad builds, these are valuable lessons. Through matches as these it is obvious the pedigree of Vincent Kompany and Nigel de Jong is of the highest quality and even in woeful match Craig Bellamy and Robinho showed tempo and intent. However what precisely happened to Micah Richards is another matter as it performance was terribly sub-par and needed to be substituted sometime after the first photos. While unconfirmed I question the match fitness of Stephen Ireland and Shaun Wright-Phillips and suspect City is up to their old tricks of throwing players on the pitch who are best left in rehab. With that in mind as City readies to spend £50m this weekend, it needs to allocate funds towards professional services within medical personnel

Manchester City v Stoke City match preview

Following Wednesday's 2-1 victory over Newcastle, Mark Hughes have quietly strung a four match unbeaten streak and are poised at ninth in the table. While criticism rains down on Eastlands from many, the Citizens have made solid moves this transfer season with the additions of Craig Bellamy and Nigel de Jong to their lineup.

Tony Pulis' Stoke City are in the fight of their Premier League lives, tied for the bottom of the table with twenty-one points but have consistently put forth a good effort in front of their supporters at Britannia.


Prior to the match, Mark Hughes commented on the need for more consistency and better play away from Eastlands:

“Our away form is not as good as our home form which you can reasonably expect, but we should have picked up more points on our travels given the games we have played.

“We have to look to be positive against Stoke, it’s going to be difficult because they have a real, physical presence. Maybe that was evident on Wednesday night, when at times we struggled when we did not have a big presence up front.

“But we can cause problems in different ways with our movement and technical ability so we’re hopeful we can cause Stoke problems, and get on the track of winning away games in the league.”

“We’ve lost Dunnie’s presence as well, but ahead of the back four we are a little lacking in height – maybe not so great going into a game against Stoke! But we are playing well at the moment, and we need to impose our game on them rather than the other way around.”

For the match, Man City is anticipating both Shaun Wright-Phillips and Pablo Zabaleta to be available after suffering injuries in the prior match while while Stoke will go forward missing Andy Wilkinson and Abdoulaye Faye.

Newcastle collapses late

After building a solid two goal lead Newcastle collapsed in-front of their home crowed as they played to a 2-2 draw with Stoke City. With the single point, Newcastle edges in-front of Tottenham with the Spurs facing West Ham tomorrow. The Magpies took the lead only eight minutes in as Jonás Gutiérrez provided the Michael Owen a close range opportunity to beat Stoke 'keeper Thomas Sorensen. The margin was doubled sixteen minutes later Obafemi Martins's cross was flicked in by Michael Owen and visions of much needed cascaded throughout a jubulent St James' Park. Unfortunately Danny Guthrie suffered a injury at the half and the Potters slowly took control of midfield play. After pressuring Newcastle, Stoke could be held back no longer and on the hour, Ricardo Fuller provided Mamady Sidibe the ball in the area with the Cercle Athlétique de Paris Charenton-product bringing Stoke within one. With Newcastle reeling as the match wore down, former Magpie Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye rose to the occasion re-directing Republic of Ireland international Glenn Whelan's free-kick behind Shay Given in added-time.

As a further note Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear was sent to the stands for disputing a linesman call that led to the equalizer. Given his previous problems with the FA, this will undoubtedly be reviewed.

Robinho's day

Manchester City took a solid step forward in their development with a easy 3-0 victory over Stoke City at Eastlands. Freshly promoted Stoke City were no match for City who dissected their defense at will with Robinho netting three goals and equally capably of adding a few others.

Robinho's first goal came fourteen minutes into the match on a slick feed from Wales international Ched Evans which he quickly struck to the back of the net from ten meters. Stoke fought back and threatened City 'keeper Joe Hart with the equalizer but he was up to the challenge. The one drawback for City was Ched Evans suffering a knee three minutes. Replaced by England U21 star Daniel Sturridge, a few minutes after the break the young virtuso orchestrated Robinho's second goal off a slick through-ball. This combination returned with twenty-eight minutes remaining as Daniel once again fed Robinho for his third goal of the day. City came close on a number of occasions but Stoke 'keeper Thomas Sorensen would have nothing to do with that and the match concluded with a hearty 3-0 in favour of Manchester City.

After the match Manchester City manager Mark Hughes noted his approval:

"I thought we were excellent, and not only in the attacking sense because defensively we were rock solid. We were prepared to stand up to the battle that Stoke will always give you.

"When we got the ball back we broke with real purpose and could have won by an even bigger margin.

Man City returns to Premier League action this Wednesday against Middlesbrough.