Michael Tonge's loan move from Stoke to Preston after Tony Pulis's unsuccessful attempt to establish the languid midfielder as a Premier League player comes as little surprise; his spell at the Britannia Stadium having been as excitement packed as a Cabinet meeting to discuss the Lisbon treaty. Tonge is one of a special breed of players who look the part – and his formative years in some dramatic Click to continue reading...

Seasoned Spurs fans will pick out with ease the errors in the following preview. 'Tottenham have a routine game against Wigan in the Premiership on Saturday which should give them an easy win and three points to boost their Top Four chances. At home to an average Wigan side with a poor away record who have yet to fully adapt to their new Click to continue reading...

Dave Kitson would be up there with Michael Gilkes and Shaka Hislop as one of my all time favourite players. I first took note of the Ginger Ninja in a 2-2 draw between Cambridge United and Reading at the Abbey Stadium back in 2002. The former shelf stacker was everywhere that day and it was with huge excitement that I greeted his arrival at Madejski Stadium a year later. Click to continue reading...

Hull defeated Stoke city 2-1 in their Premier League encounter to ease the pressure in the Hull camp to a great deal. It was the visitors who scored the first goal and took the lead and Hull seemed set to another defeat. But a goal in the second half and the second in the stoppage [...] Click to continue reading...

Perhaps the biggest debate of the 2009-2010 Premier League season has been stoppage time. Premiership fans witnessed Michael Owen propel Manchester United to a derby day victory over cross-town rivals City in stoppage time, and last weekend we saw Stoke battle on through five minutes of stoppage time to hold on to a slender 1-0 lead over hosts Tottenham.

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The Tottenham bus having temporarily run out of petrol against Stoke and been pushed into a lay-by got back on the road again in the Carling Cup by beating Everton. It was fortunate that after Stoke we had a home tie in our favourite competition and were playing opponents who were forced to play three times in six days and were, like us, missing senior players. Click to continue reading...

Ah. Didn't see that one coming at all. Batter a team and lose to a late goal? How typically Tottenham.
Now that I've had a day to stew over it, the effect's of yesterday's cruel defeat to Stoke are now in plain sight. We hammered them for 80 odd minutes and achieved absolutely nothing. And one defensive slip cost us. Click to continue reading...

Stoke at the Lane today and, if I'm being frank, we should batter 'em. And that's with all due respect to Tony Pulis and his side of muscled brick houses. Anything less than three points is calamity.
Jonathan Woodgate could be in line for a first start of the season but one suspects Harry Redknapp may choose to blood him back into the side in the Carling Cup clash with Everton rather than today. Click to continue reading...

How can a club survive in the Premier League, West Brom, Hull and Stoke managements wondered last year? Wolves, Birmingham and Burnley managers and presidents ask the same question today. You may say that the answer to this old question is always the same: MONEY. The answer is only partially true.

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Courtesy of F365:

Arsenal
* The Gunners are scoring an incredible average of 3.37 goals per Premier League game this season.

* If games ended after 45 minutes, Arsenal would be top of the table with 19 points.

* All Arsenal's points have been won against bottom-half opposition.

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Given the title of this article, I could be about to tell you about how the strike duo of Darren Bent and Kenwyne Jones will be leading Sunderland to new heights in the Premier League this season, but we will save that for a later date. I'd rather make a bold statement and talk about the bottom of the table at the moment.

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Ahead of yesterday's game between Man United and Stoke, I was slightly anxious. Last season Burnley had only lost four games at home and they had recently played Chelsea who only managed to get a...
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Man United will be looking for another Premier League win when we travel down to Stoke tomorrow afternoon. Stoke City were only beaten four times at the Britannia Stadium last season, United won with...
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We all know that goalkeeper Ben Foster didn't have the best of matches against Manchester City last Sunday. Tomasz Kuszczak replaced Foster in goal on Wednesday but that wasn't a surprise and the...
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From Sky: Chelsea look to continue their formidable start to the 2009/10 Premier League season as they travel to Wigan Athletic, while bottom-of-the-table Portsmouth host Everton on a weekend of nine top-flight fixtures.

The above is a tale of two hugely contrasting beginnings to the new campaign.

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It's difficult to know where to start on this one. There were some encouraging things in Saturday's match, but the depressing things definitely outweighed them. You can view limited highlights (I use the term loosely) here, I'm trying to find the full ones and I'll update the post when I do.

One of the best chances for the Wanderers was scuffed by Gary Cahill, he headed a cross from Matty Taylor right over the bar.

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After experiencing a promising start in the top flight by defeating the current Premiership champions, Burnley's form went crashing down with two heavy road defeats at the hands of Chelsea and Liverpool, 3-0 and 4-0 respectively. Now, they have to defend their perfect record at home against Sunderland, who come pumped and ready after thrashing Hull City 4-1 at home.

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After experiencing a promising start in the top flight by defeating the current Premiership champions, Burnley's form went crashing down with two heavy road defeats at the hands of Chelsea and Liverpool, 3-0 and 4-0 respectively. Now, they have to defend their perfect record at home against Sunderland, who come pumped and ready after thrashing Hull City 4-1 at home.

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So I actually did get time to do a preview, you lucky ducks! I've used the handy BBC Premiership Predictor, a wonderful piece of web design where you can enter your expected results and see how it affects the table. Perfect for wasting time if you're at work/school and don't actually want to do something (I am a champion procrastinator, in fact I should be doing math homework as I type this).

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So I don't have any news to report I just wanted to share this link with you. It is from the blog Manny Road, which is one of the best Bolton blogs out there, a little humor piece of suggested songs for the Bolton Wanderers playlist. So go on and have a laugh at our crapness (it's the least you can do).

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Arsene Wenger's rapidly increasing dependence on youngsters within his squad reached new heights this midweek when he chose to start off the Champions League group stages with rookie Italian goalkeeper Vito Mannone between the sticks.

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Stoke City may be a small club, but that never seems to faze them when they walk out in front of the crowd at The Britannia. Saturday was no different.

Chelsea was visiting, and they brought their undefeated record with them, too. Stoke was ready for a battle, though. It's pretty hard to describe how different Stoke is as a team when they are playing at home.

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Hello my dears, I hope you had a lovely weekend. Obviously you could have nothing but as Bolton had their first win in 10 league matches (since April, v. Boro for those of you counting). If you missed the game here are the highlights. Now onto actual analysis instead of me just blabbering on.

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There have only been 46 games so far this season but already there are some notable - or perhaps anomolous - statistics. Courtesy of Football365, here are the most salient in a club-by-club format...

Arsenal
*Tomas Rosicky's first outing in 20 months also included a goal.

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Delap: Stoke City's Wild Card

Stoke City vs Chelsea FC at the Britannia Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent, 3pm local time. Conditions: pitch good, weather fine.

Line-ups

Chelsea: Cech, A Cole, Terry, Ivanovic, Bosingwa, Ballack, Malouda, Kalou, Mikel, Lampard, Drogba

Stoke City: Sorenson (Simonsen), Faye, Collins, Huth, Higginbotham, Delap, Shawcross, Etherington, Whelan, Kitson (Tuncay), Beattie (Fuller)

1st Half

Stoke, playing five at the back, begin marking the ball closely.

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We're back into Premier League football this weekend after the international hiatus. There are already strong cases for 'must have' players, even after only four games. Here we take a look at the most compelling...

1. Jermaine Defoe

Back at Spurs after his stint with Portsmouth, Defoe has started the season like a runaway train.

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Twitter character limit strikes again We had no idea this position was vacant at Stoke City but an, erm... opening must have come up. Now we just have to decide if becoming an ass is a promotion of demotion from managing Thailand.

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Fast Forward to 50 seconds for brilliance
You won't find a bargain player I love more in the Fantasy Premier League than Stoke's Liam Lawrence (5.5M). The free kick specialist has yet to find the back of the net for his club this season, but his first international goal today was surely a beauty. Click to continue reading...

Another week of Premiership action is now in the books, and Thursday means one thing: it's time for the Thursday Throwdown from A to Z. Here we go...

AÂ is for Anelka. Chelsea fans should be counting their lucky stars that both Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba are in spectacular form.

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Arsenal

What they wanted

Arsène Wenger admitted he was looking for defensive cover and a defensive midfielder, along with 'half the managers in the Premier League'

What they got

Arsenal have made an impressive start and that may have convinced Wenger that the squad he has - with the addition of Thomas Vermaelen - will suffice

Pleat's verdict

Maybe a talented big man to replace Emmanuel Adebayor would have given them variations.

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. Stoke jumped to fourth spot in the Premier League table as they defeated Sunderland 1-0 at home. At the start of the season, they were being looked down upon as one of those who will sit in the relegation zone. But they are proving themselves better than expected. It was Dave Kitson's strike [. Click to continue reading...

Photo credit: P.A. Hudson

Stoke City this week completed the double-signing of Robert Huth and Tuncay Sanli from Middlesbrough. As a Boro fan, I thought I'd run the rule over what these additions will mean to the Potters. I can see ups and downs in both signings.

First to Robert Huth.

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. When you are newly promoted to the Premier League you take every point you can get; and that includes draws at home. While the logical inclination for new teams is to win as many games at home as they can, going gung-ho to get that victory or playing a bit conservatively [...] Click to continue reading...

Question; Who is the most relieved man on the planet right now? Answer; Mr. Philip Brown. The little-known name of Kamel Ghilas ensured Hull bagged their first points of the PL season, and giving Manager Phil Brown a reason to sigh very heavily. It was The Tigers' first home win in the PL since December. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool put forth a more-than-convincing performance in a rout of Stoke City (who twice held us to 0-0 draws last season) that definitely answers some questions that critics had of us. We were simply awesome from the minute we kicked off, clearly pissed off from the 1-2 defeat at Tottenham. You'll notice I didn't post [. Click to continue reading...