Back to Black

Peter Odemwingie bringing smiles to the Britannia Stadium

It has been heralded this week as the start of the 'new' Stoke City. With two out of three of the Potter's goals at the weekend coming from flowing passing moves, supporters are finally seeing the dawn of a new era in the history of Stoke City Football Club. What caught the eye of the neutral was that Stoke had slices of luck during the game, not unearned luck, but slices that have perhaps not been evident enough at other times in the season so far. To go a goal behind against West Ham United is always a challenge as Sam Allardyce is a similar manager to Tony Pulis in that they both focus on defensive play first, then attack as the game demands it. With the score at 0-1, whilst there were no nervous noises from supporters, they could have been forgiven for expecting a repeat of the results against Southampton and Swansea at home this season, gaining a draw in a situation when a win would be better. Consider the two points dropped in both of those fixtures, and the gap to 9th position in the league now would only be 5 points compared to the 9 at present, whilst Southampton in 8th would not be unreachable being only 6 points ahead. It is a sign that this season has been good, but it could have been so much more. West Ham's goal at the weekend epitomised this, with Asmir Begovic coming to claim a ball into the box when all he had to do was stay on his line and wait for the header to come his way. His jump for the ball sums up Stoke's season: so close, yet so far.

Marko Arnautovic celebrates his first Britannia Stadium goal

Whilst Stoke's chances of reaching 9th or 8th in the league table are slim to none, 10th is still a realistic target and can be achieved with wins like the one against West Ham. The key to the comeback was simple: attacking. Whilst West Ham had a penalty claim from a debatable Marc Muniesa handball, they posed little threat after their goal, with Stoke creating the better opportunities in the game. Stephen Ireland had spurned two good chances of equalising for the Potters when from a corner, Peter Odemwingie grabbed a goal, without realising it after standing on the goal-line as Peter Crouch shot goalwards not once, but twice, burying the second effort off Odemwingie's shoulder. If players have any say in claiming a goal, then Odemwingie would hopefully allow Crouch to take the goal because it was all of his working, though if it remains in Odemwingie's name then it is no harm to have a goalscorer scoring a brace in a game. Stoke took the lead just after half time and again this is where luck shone on the Potters, with a nice passing move leading the ball to Marko Arnuatovic's feet just outside the centre of the penalty box, who cut inside his marker, the ball rebounding off a West Ham player back into his path and a sliced finish drifted past Adrian and into the net. You suspect if the chance had fallen to Jon Walters, the chance would have been thwarted, but Marko had the guile to push forward with the ball, try his luck, and it worked. A lesson to all the Stoke players: buy a ticket for the raffle as you never know if you might win! The third goal sums this ideology up as well, with three Stoke players countering on the West Ham defence, Stephen Ireland on the ball, sends a ball wide to Peter Odemwingie, wider than he would have preferred it you suspect, but the finish into the far corner of the net was sublime. No other forward at the club would have taken that chance and finished it as Odemwingie did so he deserves all of the plaudits he receives for the finish. The ball into his feet though was poor, yet he made a shot work with it though. He took a chance on the first time shot rather than risking a touch to cut inside and shoot. He gambled and it paid off. This was a day for the Potters to gain a bit of good fortune, now they need to grasp this luck and push on with it.

Away from the Brit - Heroes amongst Villains:

Peter Crouch on the ball against Aston Villa

Aston Villa are the Jekyll and Hyde team of the season. One week you have the Hyde side, capable of losing by two goals to West Ham and looking incapable of victory at Villa Park, then a few results on and a Dr Jekyll of a performance beats Chelsea with some ease. Which is the true Aston Villa, and most importantly which one will turn up to play Stoke on Sunday afternoon? Their front-line has the ability to frighten most defences in the league, when Christian Benteke is on form then there is very little you can do to stop him, whilst Andreas Weimann, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Marc Albrighton and even Grant Holt can cause a team damage if called upon. Where the team fails at times is supplying these forwards with opportunities. Ashley Westwood and Fabian Delph are classed as the hub of Villa's midfield, but I'm not sure I'd take either of them over a Charlie Adam or even their recent midfielder, Stephen Ireland, when creativity is an issue. Both of those players can create something for themselves or for others whilst Delph and Westwood appear more destructive than creative players by nature, this comment taking into account Delph's goal against Chelsea via a Cruyff flick. Their defence is, in my opinion at least, still one of the weakest in the division, just outside of the bottom teams, this is also taking into account that they have conceded 6 less goals than Stoke have this season. Leandro Bacuna, Matt Lowton, Nathan Baker, Ciaran Clark, Ron Vlaar, Joe Bennett, Ryan Bertrand, whilst all big parts of the current Villa team, they do not exude class. An example of this will come next weekend, where Curtis Davies will arrive at the Britannia Stadium, amid recent shouts for a late call-up for the England World Cup squad. Whilst he will not get the call-up, his supporters (not necessarily just Hull supporters) will be calling for his inclusion. The same can be said of Stoke and Ryan Shawcross as we push for him to be given his second chance in the England squad after his 20 minute nightmare against Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Villa on the other hand have four English players in their crop of defenders, yet none of them are seen as part of England's long term, or short-term future, with none of them even involved in recent U21 fixtures. Baker and Bennett received 3 U21 caps before 2013, Bertrand has played twice for the England senior team but both were whilst he was in favour at Chelsea, whilst Lowton has fallen out of favour with Paul Lambert and as a result has lost form from last season when he was tipped to emulate Kyle Walker and break into the senior England squad. All of these players have been tipped, but none of them have pushed on. Now is the time to face this group of players, whilst they are underachieving to what is their supposed potential.

Christian Benteke and Ashley Westwood, a bad day at the office?

Whilst it may be a good time for Stoke to go to Villa and try and attack their young backline, the one problem Stoke have is a lack of bodies. To add to the suspensions of Jon Walters and Charlie Adam is an ineligibility of Stephen Ireland after performing admirably last week against West Ham. You have to question the logic of not fighting against the clause preventing Stoke's new Irishman from playing against Villa that was in the deal to bring Ireland to the Britannia permanently in January. Nevertheless, with Ireland eligible, I would push the point from last week that Brek Shea should be given an opportunity on the bench, at least. Last week's bench against West Ham consisted of three defenders, one central midfielder, one winger and a forward. The balance should at the very least consist of only two defenders, and Shea was overlooked in favour of Ryan Shotton. If Stoke are a goal down and need to change things, what options did we have after Guidetti and Etherington? Wilson Palacios? Putting Shotton into an advanced position as Tony Pulis did? Whilst Brek Shea has not proven himself greatly at Barnsley, it is unusual to say the least not to include him in a squad that is struggling for depth, so if Oussama Assaidi is declared unfit for tomorrow's fixture tomorrow, I would call for his inclusion, at least on the bench. From the start, if Stoke do not have Oussama Assaidi available after his recent injury problems, I would start Matthew Etherington in favour of John Guidetti. Not only does Etherington have better defensive capabilities but it would also allow an attack-minded substitution, a Plan B, if things do not go right from the start of the game. By starting Guidetti, you start with Plan B, and have few alternatives if things go badly as the game progresses. This would also allow Marko Arnautovic to play with a free role, having the option to link up with all three attacking players (Etherington, Crouch and Odemwingie), rather than being linked up with. If this quadrangle of players can get at Villa's back four, Glenn Whelan and Steven Nzonzi are well versed in taking control of a game in these situations, making simple passes and keeping Stoke's attacks flowing short and smoothly, and as such a positive result would not be out of the question.

Beyond the Brit - Champions League (Part 2):

Bruised and battered, and they haven't played Bayern Munich yet!

Out of the two Champions League ties this week, the Manchester United tie caught my eye more, not for the football glamour by any means (Drogba's return to Stamford Bridge winning out easily there!) but due to the 'importance' of winning this match to the United players. It was a phrase that kept recurring throughout the match coverage, 'they must win this', 'the pressure will be on if they don't', and so on. Shouldn't the pressure have been on in September when they lost their first fixture of the season against Liverpool? Shouldn't it have been on when they lost the Manchester Derby, the home fixtures against 'lesser' teams, losing to Stoke away after spending £30m+ on Juan Mata, and most recently after losing convincingly to Liverpool at Old Trafford. Yes this was a high pressure game, but the amount of hype surrounding it, you'd've thought that if United had won the game, they had qualified for next year's competition! Instead they now face the current Champions of Germany, Europe and the Club World Cup: Bayern Munich. After watching Bayern score at the Emirates recently, then defend a lead effectively at the Allianz Arena, I do not give much hope to United considering their fluctuating form this season. All that can be said is that stranger things have happened in football than United beating Bayern, but it doesn't happen that often!

Drogba's return to Chelsea did not have a
goalscoring impact for his current club.

Chelsea on the other hand looked convincing winners over a fairly strong Galatasaray side which included well known names such as Felipe Melo, Wesley Sneijder and of course Didier Drogba. It was surprising to see how little effort Drogba put into the game at times, a game where I thought he would be busting a gut to prove that he could still do a job against any team in Europe. Instead he looked laboured, chasing after balls for a moment before stopping in his tracks to watch his runner speed ahead of him. This attitude could be translated to the whole team at times, but considering the strength of their team, plus Roberto Mancini who does not allow slackers into his team, it was surprisingly easy for Chelsea to master this task. A tie against Paris St. Germain should not be overly daunting for Chelsea, with the Parisians still a growing team who are more likely to pull up trees in the years to come rather than at this current moment. With names like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Javier Pastore, Lucas Moura, there is enough talent in their team for this to be a tasty tie. All that needs to be added is bring on April and these mouth-watering fixtures for the neutral!

Quick Snippet - Warrior:

Understated promotion, but will their first Stoke kit follow suit?

The big news commercially for Stoke City this week has been the change of kit sponsor from Adidas to Warrior. During the past four seasons, I have to say I've enjoyed the kits that Adidas have made, but there was an element of laziness with some of their most recent incarnations, with elements in Stoke kits being too notable in opposition kits bearing the Adidas logo. Looking ahead to Warrior though, they have already made a statement this year with Liverpool's kits, their away kits being fiery to say the least. Whilst their promo for the Stoke website was understated, it seems unlikely that Warrior's first Stoke City kit will be just as simple, and to an extent, this can only be good for those who buy a new kit each season. Bring on the Warrior era!