A Week of Three Parts

Part One - That's Why They Call Them The Blues:

Gerard Deulofeu's opening goal opened the flood-gates

After a convincing win against ten-men Sunderland a week before, confidence was high amongst supporters that regardless of the result, Stoke City would put a performance in against a resilient Everton side. The loss of Leighton Baines to injury, plus the absence of Ross Barkley from the Evertonian's starting line-up gave hope to Stoke supporters that perhaps a shock result could be on the cards. The starting line-up for the Potters was encouraging, although some had doubts over the inclusion of Spaniard Marc Muniesa for his league debut in central defence. In a battle of a near-unstoppable force versus a generally immovable object, Everton showed their class in steam-rolling a Stoke City side that looked far from the races from the first whistle. The opening 20-30 minutes of the game had echoes of Stoke's defeat to Norwich City in September, with Everton closing the ball down with urgency whenever Stoke lost the ball, resulting in hurried and misplaced passes in the Stoke ranks. Just like the Norwich game, Stoke were clinging on by the time they conceded the first goal, a wonderful one-touch passing move started and finished by Gerard Deulofeu. At the end of the first half, this goal came at a critical time, influencing Stoke's approach at half time. Would they settle for keeping the game tight and trying to keep the margin of defeat narrow, or would they push forward and risk leaving themselves exposed at the back? The latter proved to be the case with Ryan Shawcross failing to clear the ball out of his own half within the opening minutes of the second half. Instead he tried to play the ball to his own team and lost possession, and unable to get back into position to stop Deulofeu crossing in for Seamus Coleman to dink the ball into Asmir Begovic's far corner, Shawcross was helpless to make amends for his error.

Marc Muniesa battling for the ball with Leon Osman

At 2-0, changes needed to be made to try to save face, but they did not arrive until the score was 3-0, a sweet strike from stand-in left-back Bryan Oviedo putting the Potters out of the contest. Kenwyne Jones and Brek Shea were introduced to the game at 3-0 and both had an impact in the game. Jones helped to create a chance for Peter Crouch who could not find the right connection to a flick on around the edge of the Everton box, whilst Brek Shea failed to connect to an across-field ball to head the ball into the unguarded net. This short spell of Stoke pressure ended when Romelu Lukaku scored the fourth Everton goal, taking his last chance at goal before making way for Nikica Jelavic. So what could be taken out of this game? Everton are a better team that previously thought, their win a few days later at Old Trafford showing that they should not be ruled out of contention for the European places. Any result for Stoke at Goodison Park would have been fortunate, with Everton paralysing Stoke in attack and defence equally as well. The question that was asked ahead of Cardiff's visit to the Britannia Stadium was: have the opposition worked out how to stop the new Stoke City from playing?

Part Two - The Bluebirds leave Potters red-faced:

Marko Arnautovic failed to make an impact on his return

Despite a draw against the Bluebirds taking Stoke up to 14th in the league, the result was deserved, and no complaints would have been made if Stoke had not even gained that. The failure to take control of the game against Everton was not completely banished, with player errors being at a premium. Passing without accuracy, squaring the ball instead of shooting, crossing with the left instead of cutting inside are just a list of the small errors the team made. These are the signs of a team in transition, similar to Aston Villa last season. They are the team closest to Stoke City to make a natural comparison, where a new manager has come in and needed time to steady a stem of negative results. Where last season Villa could not keep a clean sheet, they had the likes of Christian Benteke and Andreas Weimann leading the forward line to maintain their position as ever-presents in the Premier League. Stoke's final league position will depend on how their back-line, so successful for many seasons, can cope with the transition in play which is targeting an increase in goal-scoring opportunities.

Steven Caulker heading towards Asmir Begovic

With a clean sheet after the horror show at Everton, a point against Cardiff would normally be a welcome recovery from a poor result. The fact remains though that the performance did not earn a point, let alone three. Oussama Assaidi has come in for criticism due to his performance against the Welsh side, and whilst some of it is deserved, some of it is not. As a relatively young player, he is still learning when the best time is to do certain things in a game. When is the best time to cross, when is the best time to lay the ball off for someone to have a strike, when should I cut inside, and so on. The game against Cardiff showed that he has raw talent, but until his football intelligence increases, he will remain just that - raw. Behind the scenes, it is important that the experience of Matthew Etherington and Jermaine Pennant starts to rub off on him so that when he is double or triple marked by the opposition, he is aware that somewhere there will be a free man, possibly two. Although this is targeted at Assaidi, this is a lesson that the whole Stoke squad could do with understanding, with attacks looking predictable at times, and perhaps the inclusion of Stephen Ireland or Jermaine Pennant could do the trick to just add that edge of unpredictability to the side against an efficient Chelsea side.

Part Three - The game for Walters?

An own-goal, one of two for Jon Walters, in a game to forget

In recent seasons, Jon Walters has been at the centre of results between Stoke City and Chelsea at the Britannia Stadium, for good or bad. The most recent of these results came at the cost of two own goals, plus a missed penalty for Jon Walters. These were followed up by a Frank Lampard penalty and a long range effort by Eden Hazard to give a Chelsea side under Rafa Benitez a much needed away win. On the day, as much as Chelsea were worthy of their win, Stoke were unworthy and it started a run of poor results in 2013, continuing to this day. Could Saturday, 7th December, 2013 be the day when Stoke's results finally start to turn for the better, or will a repeat of January's result be on the cards?

Drogba heading Chelsea back on level terms in 2011

To get a result against a Chelsea side that is dragging out results when playing below their best, Stoke need their best players to play at their best. Despite being dropped for the first time in 102 games against Cardiff, I would lean towards giving Walters a run-out against Chelsea, although perhaps from the bench if the game remains tight. One of Jon Walters's most memorable goals in a Stoke shirt came against Chelsea, beating David Luiz and John Terry to slot past Petr Cech after a run from the half-way line. 102 games later and Jon Walters has looked a shadow of that player at times, yet we know that he is capable of finishes such as that. Mismanagement, largely by Tony Pulis and now Mark Hughes has been key to his drop in form. Whilst there is an argument that rotation is overly used as an excuse in modern football to change team line-ups, it is also a valid chance to give players a breather if they aren't playing well or if they have played a lot of games in a short space of time. Starting the amount of games he has in the last 2 years must have affected Walters, mentally if not physically. Look at Joe Hart, who having a break now, will hopefully come back and show why he is England's number one goalkeeper. For Stoke, hopefully a break will have the same affect for Walters, who on his day is capable of finishing good opportunities.

Quick Snippet - Brazil 2014:

Sao Paulo's Stadium, now (left) and projected for June 2014 (right)

This snippet comes at the cost of the two people who lost their lives when the crane at Sao Paulo's Arena Corinthians fell, carrying parts of the roof and destroying the stadium's LED screen and several columns in the process. This setback aside, Brazil 2014 is still behind schedule, with Brazil's Sports Minister comparing the delay to a bride being late for a wedding. With recent news that the Arena Corinthians will be delayed until mid-April, the world will be watching with abated breath to see if the bride does turn up. After all, like any traditional wedding, what do you do when the bride fails to turn up?