Yellow Fever

Ozil with a hand in all three Arsenal set-piece goals

A sign of a good mid-table team is after losing a game, you can reflect on it and say "we didn't deserve to lose that". The two games we have lost this season, both away at Liverpool and last Sunday at Arsenal, we have come away feeling that lady luck just had failed to shine brightly enough on us at the end of the day. Lady luck is a tempestuous topic amongst some football supporters, angry when she is used as an excuse for a poor game of football, but I think she is worthy of being discussed on the past weekend's matches. With the match at 2-1, we saw Stoke's best period of the match where we dominated possession but failed to capitalize on the territorial advantage that we had. Only a day before, Southampton went to Anfield and managed to score a goal that secured them all three points. It was in this period, where we were doing all the work, that just a fluke deflection at a set-piece or a sloppy bit of Arsenal defending would have warranted the goal that we deserved. Fate would have it that we concede another goal to a player who had not scored in over a year, just to rub salt into our open wounds. At 3-1, despite bringing Jermaine Pennant on, I think even the most ardent Stoke fan would have struggled to believe we could muster a comeback. At 2-1, it was never impossible, which as far as the transition from Tony Pulis to Mark Hughes goes is a sign of the progress the team have made this season.

Geoff Cameron, the unlikely goalscorer

So set-pieces were our undoing at the weekend, but there are plenty of positives to take out of the game. Geoff Cameron deserves to be singled out because I have to admit that at the start of the season I doubted his capability to play at full-back preferring Ryan Shotton in my opening day line up back in mid-August. I still believe that Geoff could be opened up if a tricky customer is played against him - watch out this weekend with Nathan Redmond! - but where positionally he is perhaps still adjusting, as far as the rest of the attributes a current Stoke City full-back needs, Geoff is showing game after game that he can cope with the role. His main strength in the Mark Hughes era has been making runs forward to support Jon Walters on the right wing, offering himself as a crossing option or as a player who can keep possession. His speed allows him to track back well if Stoke are caught on the break, while his natural ability as a central defender is still there if he needs to make a last-ditch tackle. As we saw on Sunday, he also has a good strike in him, with his shot from a Marko Arnautovic rebound leaving no doubt that it would reach the target. With Erik Pieters still adapting to Premier League football, with steady if not spectacular performances, Geoff is showing that even if he can't break past the established Shawcross/Huth partnership, he's willing to play wherever he has to as long as he plays every week.

Tranmere Rovers Away:

Cool finish, potentially a starter against Norwich?

Our second game in a week wearing our black and yellow away kit resulted in a 2-0 away win at Tranmere. Now as Port Vale showed today, winning at Tranmere is not difficult at the moment. They are on a poor run at the moment and for Ronnie Moore's sake I hope they pull themselves out of it soon enough. However, as far as Stoke's performance went, we appeared as professional as always. The first goal came from a rare sight, a clinical through-ball from Arnautovic to Ireland, the latter finishing neatly into the far left corner. While we did not score again until the last kick of the game, thanks to Peter Crouch's nicely dinked over the goalkeeper finish, Tranmere rarely threatened, with misses from Chris Atkinson and Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro the most notable chances Tranmere had of pulling themselves back into the game.

Careless Canaries:

Javier Acuna put Watford ahead, only for the Hornets to lose 3-2 AET

On paper, statistics do not always reveal everything. Possession does not always result in goals, as Arsenal's win at Swansea tonight proved. Swansea, despite having the ball for 58% of the game, scored one goal, whilst Arsenal with 42% of the ball possession scored two goals. Goals scored statistics can also be deceiving, with Fernando Torres having scored no goals this season, according to some, whilst others would argue that he has scored two. Does the UEFA Super Cup count to some? It should, but some people forget. Then there are the statistics that should exist, but do not. Jan Vertonghen in this instance should have had a red card accredited to his playing record against Aston Villa in midweek, and as a result of this statistic never occurring, the aforementioned Torres now has one instead.

Statistics on Stoke City vs Norwich City,
 thanks to 'Fortress Britannia'.

So how does this relate to this weekend's game against Norwich? So far this season, they have kept one clean sheet (against Southampton in a 1-0 win) whilst conceded one goal without reply twice (against Hull and Aston Villa). This suggests that if Norwich score, they have the capability to defend a lead and not turn a winning position into a losing one. However, it also reveals that if they are the team to concede first, they will most likely struggle to reply and regain a foothold in the game. This is where statistics are useful. My argument is that Stoke City need to score first to have the highest probability of winning the game. But shouldn't this be the case anyway? And it is also convenient from my perspective that in the Norwich results I looked at, I did not refer to Norwich's comeback against Everton on the opening day, just because it may obscure the point I was trying to make. On that note, it should be worth noting that the last three meetings between Stoke and Norwich have finished 1-0 to the home side. For those of you that like a flutter, it'll be interesting to see if the statistics truly do lie tomorrow afternoon.

Away from the Brit - Capital One Cup Crunch Time:

Jesse Lingard, unavailable to play against Stoke City
in the Capital One Cup

At first glance, the Capital One Cup has become a little less of a Mickey Mouse Cup. In the last sixteen teams, only three of them are from The Football League. Birmingham, Burnley and Leicester are their league's sole representatives, and as for Burnley and Leicester, I hope that they do well to make the cup competition feel a bit more exciting. No offence intended towards Fulham or West Ham fans, who in the past could have said the same of Stoke, but I would find their inclusion in the last eight of the cup a little less exciting as a neutral compared to seeing two Championship sides, potentially, up against the best that English football has to offer. Whilst West Ham have got a valid reason for not being at full strength having put all their eggs into a very shaky looking shaped Andy Carroll basket, Fulham are looking very uneven at the moment. They don't look like scoring in most games, whilst their usual defensive solidity, personified by Brede Hangeland, seems to have come unstuck recently. Burnley, West Ham's opponents in the cup, have started the season well, whilst the introduction of on-loan Michael Kightly to their side has not disrupted their ascension up the table. Leicester, whilst not exactly wowing me, have collected a steady amount of points in their opening games to suggest that they want to push for promotion once again. A cup run, whilst sometimes considered a distraction, could benefit them in this instance if they can collect a scalp against Fulham. Then any potential match in the last eight would only boost morale at having reached a stage that most football supporters may not have predicted come the start of the season.

6"6 defender, capable of scoring important goals - Dan Burn

As for Stoke, although I am glad we are playing Birmingham City away compared to Chelsea away, I still believe it will be a tough game. Jesse Lingard, although unavailable for the Stoke game, has added to a very strong unit that brushed Swansea aside in midweek. Dan Burn, a defender built for Stoke if I ever saw one, will prove to be a tough player to get around, whilst Paul Caddis being utilised in midfield will give our midfielders no quarter. They appear to be utilising a 3-4-3 formation at the start of the season, although at times have switched to a back four which suggests that it has not worked in every game so far. That leads me to think, if it works, we could have a tough game ahead as Wigan in the past have showed how tough a back three is to attack, but if their system does not click on the night, we could be in luck.

Quick Snippet - Clough out, Pulis in?

Nigel Clough and Tony Pulis in their only meeting,
a 2-0 win to Stoke in January 2012

My quick snippet for this week was originally going to relate to Paolo di Canio's sacking at Sunderland and how Tony Pulis, on paper as a manager, would be a better candidate than Gus Poyet for the vacant position. However, the sacking of Nigel Clough at Derby within the last few hours has forced me to reevaluate my opinion, especially considering rumours were abound that Tony was at the ground with Derby's Chief Executive.

First of all, I'm surprised that Derby have gone and sacked Nigel after doing well with a club that never break ground in terms of player expenditure, yet always seem to stabilize themselves around mid-table each season. Saying that, their home form at the start of this season has been shaky with no wins and few goals scored to entertain the fans with. However, considering only two weeks ago Derby secured a tasty 5-1 win over Millwall at the Den, you would have been forgiven for thinking Nigel Clough would've been given a little longer to address the sliding form. However, it looks like a decision, taken in the heat of the moment after a local derby will open the door for Tony Pulis to return to management. I had been routing for Derby this season in terms of promotion, and if Tony gets the job, they will still have my backing. Now that the fourth longest serving manager in England has lost his job though, it'll send nearly all managers going to bed, sleeping a little less soundly than usual.