Premier League leaders Manchester City returned to the top last week and get the action underway when they visit Stoke City in the early game. Xherdan Shaqiri was the key it with a great show of pace and skill as he burst down the right wing, with his cross in finding his man and leaving Arnautovic with a simple tap-in from six yards.
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City has now gone four away games without a win in the league.
City had a half chance with Kevin De Bruyne forcing Jack Butland into a smart stop down low but soon after the Potters were 2-0 up.
On the left are all the touches by Stoke’s Marko Arnautovic.
Online bookmakers NetBet have Man City favourites to win in the west Midlands on Saturday lunchtime.
He strode past three visiting players before providing the cross for the opener and regularly found Arnautovic with penetrating balls behind the defence.
Stoke grew in confidence with this goal and their counter-attacking approach was working a treat, with them doubling their lead inside 15 minutes – Shaqiri and Arnautovic combining once more.
“I’m anxious by the first 20 minutes of the game against Stoke and I’m anxious going forward about the way we played the ball in the opposition box”, he added. His side have conceded just once with him on the pitch this term and let in 15 without him.
To make matters worse for Manchester City, midfielder Fernando was forced off with a hamstring injury in the second half when manager Manuel Pellegrini had already made all three substitutions.
An easy one this. “We need to put in at least a 7/10 performance every game and we are not doing that”. “We can’t accept how we played today”.
“We went with something different today, pushing Bojan up front”. We had a real view of what we needed to do well.
Stoke have made a solid if not spectacular start to the season having won five, drawn four and lost five of their opening 14 games.
Manuel Pellegrini blamed Manchester City’s latest Premier League loss on a lack of fresh legs. We didn’t create enough chances also. It was a defeat.
“I think we always fancy our chances against anyone and we’ve proved over the years that there is no fear at the Britannia”, claimed Walters.
Stoke hosted Man. City seven times in the Premier League with the sides winning one match each.
“That was causing Man City problems all day long”.
However, they have reached the semi-finals of the League Cup and the last 16 of the Champions League, with their last group game against Borussia Monchengladbach coming up on Tuesday. Kolarov has tended to struggle with trickier wide players like Shaqiri over the last couple of years, so how City handle this matchup – whether they trust Kolarov to get the job done alone or if and how they give him help – could determine the way this match ends.
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Arsenal went to second by halting a three-game winless run with a 3-1 victory over Sunderland that saw Olivier Giroud score for both teams.
