Banish the Blues

Toure the scorer again consigning Stoke to another defeat away from home

If there is one ground I want Stoke City to win at more than any, it is the Etihad Stadium. Some may say Old Trafford, The Emirates or even Anfield, but to me Manchester City is the home of everything that is wrong about present day football: wealthy owners, extortionate transfer fees and wages, and no end in sight for a financial black hole that may one day engulf the game in this country. Financial Fair Play was meant to level the playing field, allow teams with less wealth to have a better chance against those with the mega-rich owners, but with backdoor sponsorship deals allowing owners to pump more money into their clubs, it is harder to see parity ever returning to the game. On the field, the same can be said with parity being hard to find in the decision-making of referees involved in top six games. Against Manchester United and Liverpool this season, Stoke have come off worse for decisions that a referee has failed to make correctly. This was the instance against Manchester City, who truly lived up to their tag as a 'big' team, knocking around Stoke players who are made out of tougher stuff than the ragdolls those in blue made them look like.

Vincent Kompany, one of the league's best defenders
had a poor day at the office despite the clean sheet he finished with

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany was the villain of the piece, consistently fouling Stoke players during the course of the game. After receiving an early yellow card, Kompany had the potential to have been sent off (for his second yellow) on no more than three other occasions. One particular challenge, a high boot when challenging for the ball with Crouch, would not have been unworthy of a yellow card for certain, so Stoke can feel hard done by that Manchester City's best defender remained on the pitch. They can also feel aggrieved that one of City's first choice midfielders, Fernandinho remained on the field after a vicious lunge on Peter Odemwingie, a foul that could have been a red card for violent conduct, if not for the potential of the foul preventing a goal-scoring opportunity. Against nine men, Stoke would have had a chance of taking the game to Manchester City in the second half, their showing in the first 45 minutes indicative of a team that was fully aware that they could not go all out attack at the Etihad, but would push forward when the most prudent opportunities presented themselves. Alas, these are all ifs and the result stands. Stoke needed to freshen things up in the second half and Manchester City capitalised soon after the first substitution, with Yaya Toure taking advantage of the gaps created by a shift in tactics, plus a lack of awareness from Charlie Adam to slip into the box and get a toe onto the end of Aleksandar Kolarov's cross. It is not inconceivable that if the change had been made later, or not at all, then the goal may not have happened as the team were accommodating Wilson Palacios into the midfield, thus confusing Charlie Adam as to what his role in the eleven was at that moment in time. Nevertheless he should have run onto the ball and prevented Toure from having such an easy run, but all the blame cannot be put at his feet.

Back to the Brit - Gunning for Trouble:

Mesut Ozil on his home debut for Arsenal, against Stoke City

Whilst losing to Manchester City was an undesirable result, it was a good performance. At times it was backs to the wall, but only Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Barcelona have gone to the Etihad this season and left with three points. If the momentum from this performance, plus the previous games against Manchester United and Southampton can be taken ahead into the game with Arsenal, there is no reason Stoke cannot get a positive result. The Gunners will be without their talisman of the start of the season, Mesut Ozil, who has dropped in fan's estimations due to recent poor performances. Aaron Ramsey, Stoke-on-Trent's "favourite" player will be absent due to injury so Arsenal are weaker than in the previous fixture in key areas. Theo Walcott, though absent for some time now, is a miss for them as well as he offered a pacey threat down the wings that Arsene Wenger seems reluctant to trust Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to give. Tomas Rosicky may earn a second consecutive start after a fine performance against Sunderland, and wherever he plays, Stoke would be wise to mark him tightly as he can start or finish a move if given too much space.

Stoke's not so super-sub: John Guidetti

If there is one area that Stoke should look to try and alter their style of play ahead of this game, it is in attack where Peter Crouch, who has led the line admirably in recent weeks, will be up against a player in equal size and stature in Per Mertesacker. Now would be a good time to alter the frontline, if just for this one game, and try utilising a pacey forward like John Guidetti or switching Peter Odemwingie from the wings to the front line. Guidetti would be the best option as his inclusion would require the least reconstruction in other areas of the team, whilst having Odemwingie on the right wing would be good as long as Nacho Monreal is playing. Monreal has looked susceptible whenever he has played this season, and as a result Kieran Gibbs is rightly ahead of him in the pecking order, which is a surprise as Monreal came to England with fairly good reviews from his performances for Malaga in recent seasons. Having two wingers who can cause trouble for the opposition full-backs but also a pacey forward would give Stoke multiple angles to attack Arsenal with, though considering Mark Hughes's team selections this season, it would be a shock to see any drastic changes from the eleven that started against Manchester City.

Away from the Brit - Euro 2016 beckons!

Gareth Barry challenges for the ball against Switzerland

Before England have even been knocked out of a World Cup, their next Championship is on the horizon, with qualifiers announced against Switzerland, Slovenia, Estonia, San Marino and Lithuania. The toughest teams in the group are Switzerland and Slovenia, whilst the difference in quality between those two nations is vast as well. Switzerland are a rising footballing nation, with several well known players in their national team. Whilst beatable by a strong England team, they should finish second in the table. Third place, now worthy of a play off place, should then be a fight between Slovenia and Estonia, with the Slovenians my favourites to progress despite Estonia doing well in the last European Championship qualifiers, losing out to the Republic of Ireland over two legs. With a lot of players based in Italy's Serie A, the Slovenian team, in theory, will be set out well and be tough to break down, similar to Montenegro in England's recent qualifying campaigns, but lacking a specialist forward ala Jovetic and Vucinic for Montenegro.

England U21s in action against Scotland last year

For the next campaign to give any hope for the future of the national team, England will have to blood more U21 players. Looking at the last squad to play for the U21s, four out of the 23 man squad had featured for the senior team (Jack Butland, Carl Jenkinson, Wilfried Zaha and Raheem Sterling) whilst numerous others have been playing in the Premier League this season and performed admirably without receiving a call-up (Luke Shaw, James Ward-Prowse, Saido Berahino). Whilst some names may not be worthy of a call-up in the immediate future, Hodgson will have to show an intention to refresh the squad. What has concerned me regarding the current World Cup squad potentials is that players who are not playing regularly for their club may still be considered for their country, such as Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard. Jermaine Defoe has been offered a chance if he scores goals for Toronto FC, but he hadn't been scoring goals regularly for Tottenham before this was announced so what is to say he will be able to slot past Gianluigi Buffon in June come pressure time? James Milner, whilst like a Jon Walters work-horse, is not a regular for Manchester City, coming in for specific games in a rotation system. Should this put him ahead of Jordan Henderson who, despite his critics for his first two seasons at Liverpool, has impressed in a support role for Steven Gerrard this year. Jack Wilshere has played more regularly this season compared to the previous two seasons, but has his form suggested that he is a must for the plane to Brazil? At present I would say no. The same goes for Tom Cleverley who despite being a good retainer of possession has not contributed enough positives to his own season to earn a trip to the World Cup. All of these players, they all remain with a chance of making the plane to Brazil because Hodgson has not given the most promising of the U21s enough of a chance, and to call too many of them up for the showpiece tournament would risk failure beyond the current expectation the country has. For Euro 2016, with a good group to ready them, he needs to say goodbye to the old guard and place his faith in the future of England, for the future of England.

Quick Snippet - Didier Drogba and Chelsea:

Former hero, potential villain, when Drogba returns to face Chelsea

When it became official that Didier Drogba was leaving Chelsea and also the Premier League, there were mixed emotions here. Drogba in his prime had summed up all the worst of Chelsea, a team that were lucky, cheated to gain unfair advantages, and were unashamedly brazen when things did not go there way. The number of goals he scored for Chelsea was phenomenal, not necessarily due to the amount, but the number of important goals. In a cup final, he'd score. In a tight league match (against Stoke for instance), he'd open up the match with a goal. Yet since he has left the Premier League, it has to be said that something has been missing. Whilst he was a good target for good-natured heckling from the stands, Chelsea have enough players who supporters can 'abuse' from the stands. The only way I can sum this snippet up is by saying that when Drogba left Chelsea, they lost something important: a goalscorer. And considering Jose Mourinho has done little to deny this week that he lacks faith in his current group of forwards, would it be a surprise for Drogba to have one last swansong in the Premier League?