Stoke City had a rough start to the season losing their first three matches and were still
searching for their first point of the season heading into their second home match of the year
against Aston Villa on Monday night.
In a strange twist neither side's appointed manager would be present at the start of the match,
the Potters manager Tony Pulis would miss the first half due to the death of his mother early in
the day.
Lucas is set to stay at Liverpool and fight for his first team place rather than move to Stoke City
on loan, according to the Daily Mail.
The 23-year-old has been pushed down the Anfield pecking order by the arrivals of central
midfielders Christian Poulsen and Raul Meireles.
After making 41 appearances and winning the club's Young Player of the Year award last season, the
Brazilian was believed to be considering a move away.
The following is a column, representing the ideas and opinions of a Premiership Talk
columnist. It in no way reflects the opinions of Premiership Talk. Readers are invited to share
their own thoughts in the comments section following the column.
Another transfer season is officially in the books.
Stoke City defender Ryan Shawcross has today hit back at Arsene Wenger's claims that Stoke
players act like "rugby" players. The 23-year-old defender was left fuming after Wenger's
allegations saying: "He's obviously got something against me. It's just weird
"He seems to have a problem with Stoke, our manager and certain players.
For a change of pace, I thought it'd be interesting to see which clubs had the highest
attendances from this past weekend's Premier League matches. Usually the list is pretty predictable
especially when Manchester United plays at home because they always have the biggest
attendances.
With three losses from their opening three matches, Stoke City have a problem. Their third
season back in the Premier League has begun with three losses and it is only the dismal form of
West Ham United that is keeping them off the bottom of the Premier League table, although there is
an element of falseness about their position, since two of their three defeats have come at the
hands of Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur both matches that it might have been unreasonable to
expect them to win.
With three losses from their opening three matches, Stoke City have a problem. Their third
season back in the Premier League has begun with three losses and it is only the dismal form of
West Ham United that is keeping them off the bottom of the Premier League table, although there is
an element of falseness about their position, since two of their three defeats have come at the
hands of Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur both matches that it might have been unreasonable to
expect them to win.
A tough loss for Aston Villa at the Britannia Stadium on Monday. Villa led from the 35th minute
when Stewart Downing scored, but Stoke responded late. Kenwyne Jones brought them level in the 80th
minute and Robert Huth scored 3 minutes into stoppage time for the win. Brad Friedel was in goal
for Aston Villa, making 7 saves.
While Robert Huth's stoppage time strike may have earned Stoke their first Premier League win of
the season, the night will forever be remembered for the unbelievable dedication shown by Potters
boss Tony Pulis.
Hours after the death of his Mother, Pulis arrived at the Britannia Stadium to inspire his side
to a dramatic turn around.
Look, no excuses here, we need to take our medicine, we brought this defeat on ourselves by not
pressing for a win or sufficiently holding what we had, but I want to quickly highlight an issue
that we all know needs fixing.
I'm not advocating that we should do this kind of review during the game, obviously that would
be a ridiculous disruption.
Look, no excuses here, we need to take our medicine, we brought this defeat on ourselves by not
pressing for a win or sufficiently holding what we had, but I want to quickly highlight an issue
that we all know needs fixing.
I'm not advocating that we should do this kind of review during the game, obviously that would
be a ridiculous disruption.
There were so many highlights from this past weekend's Premier League matches that it was hard
to narrow it down to seven. There was Tim Howard's wonderful kick save against Manchester United,
Asamoah Gyan's beautiful debut goal for Sunderland, Scott Parker's cheeky goal for West Ham United,
and the list goes on and on.
It lived up to the preview, we got what we expected at the Britannia Stadium. When Stoke had the
ball, they were direct and made effective use of possession. When they didn't, they dropped deep
into two well organised banks of four, the midfield almost on top of the back line. Very tough to
break down.
It lived up to the preview, we got what we expected at the Britannia Stadium. When Stoke had the
ball, they were direct and made effective use of possession. When they didn't, they dropped deep
into two well organised banks of four, the midfield almost on top of the back line. Very tough to
break down.
