Two Points Gained

Odemwingie scores his first for the club against Southampton

Two goals away from home and things looked bright, certainly after seeing Peter Odemwingie opening his account for the club with a sublime finish. What has been said about it is true, that if any other striker in the league had scored that goal, no eyelids would have been batted in Stoke-on-Trent. But, because no Stoke striker has shown the prowess the finish a chance, with confidence, it looks like Stoke have found the finisher they have been after, mixed with a bit of Jon Walters's workhorse tenacity. Most important though was the timing of the goal. After being behind only seven minutes into the game, due to a special free kick from England hopeful Rickie Lambert, Stoke needed the goal to have hope of going into half time with something to fight for. So to concede again so soon after to Sean Davis's cross-shot was galling. Where do you lie blame with a goal like that? Shawcross was too far away, Begovic was wrong-footed and Cameron was too slow to get anything onto the end of the ball. It would be harsh to blame any one of them, but it has to be said that Mauricio Pochettino's claims that his team conceded soft goals is baffling. A sublime free kick and a cross that found its way into the net have little to no comparison to a well placed through-ball finish for Odemwingie's goal, and Stoke's second, from a corner. Peter Crouch, holding off his marker to get to the ball first and tap it in, though whether it was with his head of his leg, it matters not.

Lambert's opening goal gave Begovic no chance

Despite a save from a free kick in the second half, Stoke were untroubled for the most part with both sides appearing satisfied with the draw. So the first point of a two game week gained. What could be taken out of this match? First of all is that Lady Luck has not been wooed sufficiently enough, despite last week's victory over Manchester United. The two goals conceded leave a bad taste in the mouth of supporters as they were unpreventable. Adam handballed in the lead up to Southampton's first but a goal may have been created anyway had he not caused a stoppage in play, whilst the second no one knew what was going to happen before the ball hit the net. For Stoke to have a fruitful end to the season, they need a few more slices of luck on their side. Also what was noticeable is that we are capable of scoring goals at the ground of 'tough' teams. The label 'tough' alongside Southampton comes from the fact that most pundits predicted a comfortable win for Southampton, based on their lofty league position, crop of young English players, and their current form being satisfying. Coming away from St. Mary's with only a point is not a bad thing, but given what went against the team, supporters should not be criticised for saying that Stoke could, and maybe should have left with more.

Return to the Brit - On/Off Stoke vs Swansea:

Peter Crouch's second in consecutive games, taking his league tally
to six goals for the season.

Considering the damage the winds had caused across the North of England this midweek, it was a surprise to see Stoke's match go ahead. Despite an adboard being blown over and corner flags fighting to stay in the ground, the match went ahead and Stoke, for the second consecutive home game, went ahead in the 17th minute through Peter Crouch. A Peter Odemwingie shot cannoned off the left hand post and pinged its way back to Peter Crouch just inside the area, by the D, and he slotted the ball home through a sea of Swansea players. A good goal in the conditions, and apart from a Nathan Dyer effort that flew just past the left hand post, Swansea did not look like scoring in the first half. Breaking a trend seen in recent Britannia Stadium fixtures though, Swansea came back, scoring through Chico Flores, who headed the ball just out of Asmir Begovic's reach. Harsh on Stoke, but Swansea were unlucky not to get a second, with the hard work of Ryan Shawcross racing back to clear the ball off the goalline preventing Wilfried Bony getting his name onto the scoresheet. Once again though, luck intervened and chose once more not to favour Stoke, denying them a penalty after a Flores tackle on Peter Crouch in the dying moments of the match.

Spot the difference between Stoke and Swansea players!

So two points from two games. A point against Southampton was understandable, but only a point against Swansea raises questions of Stoke's capability to beat the teams around us. With games against Manchester City and Arsenal coming up next, a five point buffer away from the bottom three would have been most welcome, now though taking a point at least from these two games might be needed. As for the Swansea game, whilst it highlighted, once again, a lack of luck Stoke seem to have had all season, it has made me question the future of Peter Crouch at Stoke City. With 8 goals in all competitions this season he has matched his tally for last season and is only 6 goals away from matching his tally for his first season at the club, where he also played in one extra competition. Whilst matching that tally would be some achievement, come the end of the season, Peter Crouch will only have one year left on the four year contract he signed upon joining Stoke in 2011. With the likelihood of extension low, it is good for Stoke that he is scoring goals as this could be his last season at the club. His transfer fee of £10m (possibly rising to £12m) cannot be recouped now, but there could still be a chance of making some money from a player who up to now has scored 30 goals in 105 appearances for the club. If a London-based club, QPR for instance if they gain promotion, shows an interest, a fee of £2.5m up to £3m would not be unreasonable for a player of Crouch's quality. Based on the transfer fees Stoke have paid in the last two transfer windows as well, this would take Crouch's high wages of the bill and leave a slice of cash to buy a replacement for Crouch with. All hypotheticals, but if the Swansea match showed something, it is that Crouch has still got something to offer Stoke in these remaining months of the season, and hopefully other clubs will be taking note.

Away from the Brit - Fortress Etihad Breached!

Manchester City marshalled at home by Chelsea

The danger of predicting any league finish is that a sudden surge of form, by a player or a team as a whole can change everything. In my half-time report I noted that as Chelsea were not scoring enough goals through their three recognised strikers, they would struggle to finish inside the top four. Their attack at the time was not free-flowing and it had not been long since they were leaking goals against Stoke at the Britannia. What I failed to factor in was that a player, maybe not world-class but one of the best in the Premier League, could take Chelsea by the scruff of their neck and drag them up the league. Eden Hazard has been in magical form of late, and though he did not score at the Etihad, he caused Manchester City problems on the counter attack, always sitting on the half-way line at corners, constantly posing a question for their defence. It showed that Manchester City, whilst free-flowing at home in attack, do not like to defend. Vincent Kompany, whilst showing a steady level of form, has not hit the heights that left some supporters in disbelief that he did not earn a place on either of the last two FIFA teams of the year. Martin Demichelis has warranted criticism for his defending, with age affecting his ability to defend as can be seen across the city with Rio Ferdinand's light dwindling. The key though was that whenever Chelsea defended, they made sure that they had bodies forward, ready for the counter attack. How can this be converted to allow a Stoke team to walk away from the Etihad with their heads held high at least?

Assaidi's pace could be key to any point earned at the Etihad

First of all, Chelsea played with a tight central four players. Terry, Cahill, Matic and Luiz never too far away from each other. For this reason I believe bringing in Wilson Palacios for man of the moment Charlie Adam would be a wise move. Palacios is, if anything, disciplined. Placing him alongside Whelan will then give Shawcross and (Huth hopefully, Wilson if not) the midfield barrier they need to stop the likes of David Silva, Sergio Aguero and/or Stevan Jovetic from dropping deep and dictating play on the edge of Stoke's area. Beside this alteration, Stoke should stick with their most recent formation, with Jon Walters operating behind Peter Crouch. Part of his role would be staying as tight as possible to Yaya Toure, making sure that come the end of the game, Toure feels battered and bruised, he knows that he has had a game! In doing this, it places responsibility on Toure's midfield partner (Fernandinho, Garcia, Milner) to let the game flow. If the 'middle four' players do their job correctly, they should be able to prevent one of the three aforementioned players from having too great an impact on the game. This then allows Stoke to attack out wide with Odemwingie and Assaidi having enough pace to track back when Manchester City attack, but also to give them food for thought when Stoke go forward. Gael Clichy and Aleksander Kolarov aren't too different from Luke Shaw and you would hope that Odemwingie would be anticipating a good match-up on the day whoever plays against him. Zabaleta is a trickier customer, frequently mentioned as one of the most steady right-backs in the league in recent seasons - scoring against Stoke once or twice to prove the point! Assaidi will have to be alert to the threat Zabaleta will pose, but also try to cause the Argentinian problems that he has not been coping too well with in recent weeks. If Odemwingie or Assaidi can get the better of their full-backs, then in Peter Crouch there is a man in form and hopefully if he plays off Martin Demichelis, Stoke will have a chance to take something from Manchester City's fortress.

Quick Snippet - John Terry

John Terry in one of his last England international matches

"There have been calls for his return to the international set-up," is the go-to phrase journalists have used in the last 48 hours regarding the possibility of John Terry's reinclusion into the England squad ahead of the 2014 World Cup. On paper it makes some sense. John Terry has been a mainstay (until last week's game against Newcastle) in the Chelsea defence this season, whilst his main defensive partner has been England centre-back Gary Cahill. The theory is simple: bring John Terry back and let him and Cahill replicate their form that has created one of the meanest Premier League defences of the season. Personally though, I am glad Roy Hodgson resisted the urges to reopen that avenue, offering a public olive branch to the player. First of all it would display that a player is bigger than his country when a manager is calling for a retired player to come back and play for their country. Once you are retired from international duty, that should be that, no returns. Some have done it in recent years: Jamie Carragher, Ben Foster to name just two, but the principle should remain the same. Once you think you cannot do your club and country good service, you stop playing and give others a chance. Although some may argue that John Terry only walked because of the aftermath of having the England captaincy taken away from him, for a second time, he has been playing better since not playing international matches as well. An added factor that has been taken into account very little is that England have an established central pairing in Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka. In the world of hypotheticals, which is where all this is at the moment, if Terry had been recalled, and then suffered an injury that ruled him out of the tournament, Jagielka would be playing knowing that his manager had not got the confidence in him to stick with him and resist the urges to recall Terry. Another factor is that it would prevent another, younger, centre-back from getting to a major tournament and gaining experience of being involved in the build-up to big games. For me, there are too many negatives to recalling Terry that outweigh the positives his current form is bringing to his Chelsea team.