Premier League Match Time: Stoke Vs Manchester City

It’s Premier League match time at the Britannia Stadium, with Stoke City due to host Manchester City in match week 15 on Saturday, November 27.

Stoke are coming off a 3-0 win over West Brom in match week 14, a victory made possible in large part by a couple of penalties. The score-line does not reveal how close the game really was, and the first penalty that gave the Potters the lead on 55 minutes was a harsh decision that went against the Baggies. That said, Tony Pulis’s men grabbed the opportunity with both hands and took away three points from the game. In the process, Stoke had their third win in a row, this season.

Jon Walters came in as substitute and accounted for two late goals that closed out the game for his side. Walters’ effort might give him a start against City. All of Pulis’s charges gave a good account of themselves on the day, with Begovic bringing off some fine saves between the posts to keep a clean slate. The result has taken Stoke to the top half of the points table.

Manchester City delivered a 4-1 thrashing to Fulham, managed by their former boss, Mark Hughes, in match week 14. Mancini had been booed by City fans following successive draws. His forwards effectively exorcised the ghosts of those two games with a fluency not seen earlier from the Premier League’s richest club this season. Fulham had invited Diego Maradona to watch the game, and City’s Argentine players Tevez and Zabaleta appeared to draw inspiration.

We can gauge the scale of City’s performance when we consider that Mancini’s charges had scored just 15 goals in their previous 13 games. Salcido, returning form injury, was no match for Tevez, who fed by a Gareth Barry passed, hoodwinked Fulham’s Mexican defender and put City ahead, six minutes into the game. Fulham never recovered after that, and although they contrived to reduce the margin after the break, it was too little, too late, before a side that swept all before them, on the day.

Head to head, Manchester City lead Stoke, 4-3, in their last eight League meetings. Their last encounter, also at the Britannia, ended in a 2-2 stalemate, in February this year.

While Stoke have had a reasonable record at home, winning four games and drawing one, Manchester City have had the best away record of all teams, winning four of seven. On current form, City should edge a game that’s likely to be hard-fought.

Stoke City had the following players in their starting eleven against West Brom: Begovic, Wilkinson, Shawcross, Huth, Collins, Pennant, Whitehead, Delap, Etherington, Jones and Fuller; the Potters used Sanli, Walters and Wilson as substitutes.

The following men were in Manchester City’s starting eleven against Fulham: Hart, Zabaleta, Toure, Kompany, Kolarov, Y Toure, De Jong, Barry, Jo, Tevez and Silva; Johnson, Vieira and Milner filled in as second half substitutes.