The Wait Continues

99 Premier League wins, when will it be 100?

Stoke City are suffering from Mark Hughes's personal milestone it seems. Since the end of August, when Stoke City won their second game of their season at West Ham, Mark Hughes has been waiting for his 100th win as a Premier League manager. At the time, the next game seemed a good opportunity for it to come, a win against his former employers, Manchester City. Alas, a draw was the final result. Then another great secondary motive for victory was to beat Arsenal, traditionally Stoke's nemesis when style versus substance is questioned. Again, the win did not come. Three games on, and only one more point gained and another extra reason for the victory arrives: a chance for Mark Hughes to better his former playing club who were struggling for form themselves. When Peter Crouch put the Potters in front within the first ten minutes, Hughes must have thought that his and his team's luck was changing at last. Despite conceding a Robin van Persie equaliser, Hughes's belief that his team could get a result must have increased when Marko Arnautovic scored an unstoppable free kick that was powered into the top left corner of the net.

Marko Arnautovic the cause of celebration, conspicuous by his
absence during the second half at Old Trafford

At this point you could forgive any manager for thinking that it was looking like it could be their day. Whilst there was still another 45 minutes of football to go, Stoke had shown that they could exploit any defensive mistakes that United made, which they did with surprising regularity during the match. The match also showed where Stoke are lacking: the lack of ruthlessness. Even if the squad's head coach was John Kreese from 'The Karate Kid', you'd suspect that they'd fail to take advantage of nervous teams and go for the jugular. This lack of killer instinct has shown in the past three games, but all for different reasons. At Old Trafford, Stoke looked like the most likely team to score, Marko Arnautovic defending well when needed, but proving to be our best outlet during the 50 minutes he played. After being substituted due to feeling unwell, the balance of play changed. This is the first time Mark Hughes deserves criticism for a decision he has made, in that he failed to replace an outlet like Arnautovic for another similar player. Instead of bringing on Oussama Assaidi in a like for like change, he opted to bring on a defensive midfielder in Marc Wilson. From that point, the game drifted out of Stoke's control as when Stoke had the ball, they had no one to dictate play through, such as Arnautovic in the first half. The subsequent introduction of Glenn Whelan did nothing to improve the flow of play, although it resulted in the substitution of Wilson Palacios who was one of six Stoke players to be booked during the game. It was after this that Man United took advantage, scoring through Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez. Whether Hernandez should have been on the pitch to score the goal is another matter, the result stood because our manager did something unexpected: he stopped attacking. Rule one of gaining a result at Old Trafford has to be that you do not sit back.

Oussama Assaidi opened the scoring against struggling Birmingham

Fast Forward to Tuesday and Stoke travelled to Birmingham for a Capital One Cup tie. After Oussama Assaidi's opening strike from outside of the box, Birmingham levelled through Tom Adeyemi. A sending off for Birmingham player Wade Elliot appeared to be crucial, with Stoke going on to score twice more through Peter Crouch and Marko Arnautovic goals. By the 80th minute, it appeared all over. Arnautovic, Pennant and Crouch all left the game with Brek Shea making his first appearance of the season, alongside Stephen Ireland and Kenwyne Jones. Two goals from Peter Lovenkrands however changed the game forcing Stoke into extra time. Now where Hughes deserved a portion of blame for the capitulation against Manchester United, the players let themselves down against Birmingham. Whereas rule one of gaining points at Old Trafford is not to sit back, rule one away from the top grounds is to sit back and hold what you have. Stoke failed to do that. Although Kenwyne Jones gave Stoke another chance in extra time to hold onto a win, Olly Lee grabbed a goal that condemned both teams to a penalty shootout. Whilst the shootout showed that players other than Jon Walters are capable of scoring a penalty under pressure, the fact that it went this far is a cause for concern. Hopefully by the time Stoke get a chance at avenging their defeat to Manchester United in December, a balance will have been found between scoring goals and not conceding them.

Boruc beaten by Begovic

With six goals from two games, Stoke went into the game against Southampton, looking for Hughes's elusive 100th Premier League win against another of his former clubs. As this also was Stoke's 200th Premier League game, plus a game where Jon Walters made his 99th consecutive start for Stoke, it seemed like it was meant to be after Asmir Begovic's freak goal from a goal kick. The wind helped the ball downfield, but Boruc will know that he abandoned his goal and didn't collect the ball. At 1-0, with a goal from your goalkeeper, nothing seemed capable of slowing Stoke down. They matched Southampton's intensity on the ball, closing down their defence when they tried building attacks from the back, whilst passing the ball with a respectable amount of pace themselves. As such it was a shame that Jay Rodriguez scored for the Saints, again with a wind-aided chipped-finish bouncing over an unfortunate Begovic. Stoke had their chances to claim the three points they so desperately want, with Ryan Shawcross being the closest to scoring on two occasions, once failing to connect to a ball across the box, and another being a mis-hit in the six-yard box. On too many occasions this season, balls have been played into a dangerous area and no player has been able to get on the end of them. Whilst Shawcross is not a forward and may have been wary of being played offside if he went for the ball too early, I believe the squad should risk being played offside and getting onto the end of a ball, than setting off fractionally later and missing a chance. Small things such as this could be the difference between two draws and two wins after all.

Swansea City vs Stoke City - Preview:

Ben Davies beating Robert Huth to the ball

In the Premier League era, Stoke City vs Swansea City has been a battle of the home teams, with the record of two wins each both going to the home team. The question on the lips of Stoke City supporters' lips will be: can a change of manager create a change of fortune at the Liberty Stadium? At home against Swansea, Stoke's strength has been pressing the opposition so that they cannot play their natural game with ease. Based on the Southampton game, I believe that this trait still exists within the team, although it has been used less this season as a result of Stoke seeing more of the ball during games. This can work to Stoke's advantage as one of their weaknesses when playing away (in general) has been that they have not been able to keep ahold of the ball and create chances.

Michu is almost a certainty to play in Russia in midweek

Another positive Stoke can look towards is that they have a free week to prepare for this game, unlike Swansea who, coming off the back of Sunday's 1-0 defeat to rivals Cardiff, have a trip to Russian side Kuban Krasnodar to prepare for. As Stoke know, trips to Eastern Europe are not ideal ahead of Premier League fixtures. Despite rotating the squad in certain areas for European games, the majority of the squad stayed the same. Swansea have a similar ethos, rotating the goalkeeper, parts of the midfield and perhaps deciding whether Wilfried Bony plays or not. It would not be a surprise to see Gerhard Tremmel on the bench for this away game as Michel Vorm will not be available to play Stoke after receiving a red card in the Welsh derby. With injuries in the squad affecting key players in the rotation system (Hernandez and Davies), Swansea's side might not be as much changed as it could have been due to Swansea only being top of their group by one point. If Valencia beat FC St. Gallen, there will be pressure to get a result in the final two games against these two teams. Although these circumstances could work in Stoke's favour, if they do not put the same effort into the game that the team did against Southampton, all the travelling in the world will not make Swansea any less difficult to beat.

Quick Snippet - Ferguson for Newcastle:

Joe Kinnear expressed an interest in his team's own player
Shane Ferguson

What would the tabloids write about if Joe Kinnear wasn't at Newcastle United? At a scouting trip at Birmingham recently, he commented that he liked the looks of young left wing-back Shane Ferguson. When Birmingham commented that they believed him to be joking, they informed him that he already belonged to Newcastle, playing for Birmingham on loan. Now whilst Kinnear isn't a scout, he is the Director of Football at Newcastle. As such, you would expect him to know the name of every player at his club, from the first team to the development squad, plus all on loan players. As he has proven, he cannot even pronounce some of his player's names. At least the local takeaways in the area can dip into the mockery is that Kinnear still. Yohan Kebabs anyone?