Red Alert Averted

Wes Brown, unfortunate to be sent off against Stoke on Saturday

Something a lot of Stoke City supporters will understand is that when you have a run of luck, good or bad, you will notice it. When you're on a good run, the contentious penalty calls are given in your favour. Conversely, when you're on a bad run, you get incidents such as Wes Brown's red card on Saturday. Despite winning the ball and making minimal to no contact with Charlie Adam, referee Kevin Friend deemed the challenge to be excessive. Supporters across the land will look at the challenge Brown made and be thinking "I wouldn't like one of my players getting sent off for a challenge like that." When luck starts to desert you, as it appears to be vanishing in Sunderland's quest to stay in the top division, decisions like this make survival more of an uphill task. Contrary to what John O'Shea claimed post-match, the red card had little bearing on the remainder of the game, with both looking capable of scoring during the second half, with Steven Nzonzi's calming nerves for the final 10 minutes of the match.

Steven Nzonzi the unlikely match-winner, calming nerves after
Charlie Adam's early opening goal

Does this mean that Stoke have finally found a balance between defence and attack? Yes and no are sadly the answers to that question. Whilst Stoke managed to grab a second goal in the second half to see out a deserved victory, there were moments in the second half where Sunderland looked threatening, Adam Johnson shooting from range to cause bums to rise from seats in anxiety. Steven Fletcher's run onto a through-ball, cleared well by Asmir Begovic could have caused more problems than it did if Kevin Friend had seen the incident in full, with the Stoke goalkeeper lucky to remain on the pitch after Brown's earlier red card. These chances were created because Stoke reverted to type and sat back on a victory, rather than pushing for a further goal earlier on. Mark Hughes has been clear in the media that he believes it will take time and confidence for the players to adjust from digging their heels in for narrow victories to becoming a team with the ability to turn over teams by cricket scores. A result like this will give the players confidence that they can see out a result, even though they did not close it out as early as they could have done.

Crouch holding up the ball well against O'Shea

There is also the positive that a midfield combination has been found that proved effective, with Glenn Whelan providing a shield for his defence, as well as having a 100% passing accuracy during the 90 minutes against the Black Cats. This showed with the two goal-scorers breaking from midfield to score their respective goals. Although there is now a conundrum of where Stephen Ireland will play, having dropped out due to injury, it is a welcome conundrum compared to several weeks before where there seemed to be a gulf of difference between Adam and Ireland. The resurgence of form in Peter Crouch has not yielded many goals from the striker as of yet, but his level of performance has created goals for others, with Nzonzi's goal coming from a neat through-ball. At the start of the season, I would have pushed for Kenwyne Jones to start, mainly because I felt he would challenge for balls into the box, whereas I felt Crouch was too slow to join in with the play to finish chances off. However, if Crouch keeps up his current level of performance, there won't be many calls for Crouch to be sold, even if we bring in a few new faces to add to our front line.

Beware the Belgians:

Romelu Lukaku, one of the deadliest strikers in the league

If you were to choose between Romelu Lukaku and most other strikers in the game at the moment, few would be picked ahead of him. Whilst Christian Benteke is ahead of him in the Belgium pecking order, I cannot see that being the case for much longer. Despite scoring 17 league goals in 35 appearances last season, Jose Mourinho felt that Lukaku would benefit from further development and this weekend, Stoke City will see how good a player he really is. The Shawcross/Huth partnership is notable for being capable of dealing with strong muscular forwards who focus on bringing others into play (in the mould of Grant Holt for example), whilst also being watchful of faster, trickier strikers (ala Luis Suarez). Lukaku is a mixture of these two styles, with his strength and height making him a danger at set-pieces (take note of his header against Liverpool on Saturday), whilst he has a strong burst of pace that can beat any defender who gets caught napping. In the long run, it is a shame that Stoke failed to sign Lukaku when he first joined Chelsea (rules stating that a player could not be registered to play for three clubs in one season), with a striker in Lukaku's mould the type that Mark Hughes will still be looking to acquire in the coming months.

Kevin Mirallas made a fool of Steven Nzonzi in the last fixture
between Everton and Stoke City

Another Belgian has caused trouble for defences during the large part of the last eighteen months on Merseyside. Kevin Mirallas, scored a superb solo goal against Stoke during their last trip to Goodison Park, although Steven Nzonzi should still feel guilty about failing to stop Mirallas when he was through on goal, with only Geoff Cameron and Asmir Begovic to beat. Despite his modest goal tally in England so far, he is a tricky customer that will give either full-back a challenge for the 90 minutes, with the ability of cutting inside from the left and taking a shot, whilst also able to run the right wing and cross a ball in with accuracy. Adding Steven Pienaar to this front line strengthens it, and despite adding more goals to his game, he has failed to regularly hit the heights of his first spell on Merseyside where he deserved a move to Tottenham. With trickery and pace, Pienaar should not be underestimated, with his last goal for Everton against Hull showing that he can hit the ground running from the first whistle to last.

Quick Snippet - Tony Pulis:

Tony Pulis - the man to save Crystal Palace?

The relationship between Tony Pulis and Stoke supporters is reminiscent of a twenty year old's relationship with their parents. They find their parents to be annoying, they never seem to listen, yet they fear the day they have to live without them. Stoke have been brought up with Tony Pulis's apron-strings, provided safety from relegation and allowed to grow up without fear. The apron-strings are well and truly cut now, and some supporters are fearing they were cut too soon. Some have claimed that we are favourites for relegation at the moment, unable to name three worse teams at present. There are at least three worse teams than Stoke City at present, and Tony Pulis has just joined one of them. Like any child, they do not wish their parent harm, even if they've parted ways and severed ties with them. In this spirit, I add to the chorus of Stoke supporters in wishing Tony Pulis all the best with his new job, although I hope he'll forgive us all for rooting against him on 18th January.