Stoke vs Man City: 5 Key Battles

Manuel Pellegrini has had a varied start to his tenure at Manchester City. His team opened the season with an emphatic 4-0 win at home to a hopeless Newcastle United side, before going down 3-2 away at newly promoted Cardiff the following weekend. City responded to that with a 'business as usual' 2-0 win against another newly promoted side in Hull City. Mark Hughes has had a similar start to his managerial service at Stoke City. After losing 1-0 in the opening game of the entire Premier League season at Anfield, Hughes' men have taken maximum points from their last two games. Beating the other newly promoted side, Crystal Palace, 2-1 at the Britannia Stadium before grinding out a 1-0 win at Upton Park. Going into this game, Man City and Stoke sit pretty in the top 5 in 3rd and 5th places respectively, both on 6 points from a maximum of 9. In recent seasons, Britannia Stadium has been known around the Premiership as a very difficult place to go and play football and even though Mark Hughes has been tasked with getting Stoke to play a more attractive brand of football, it's unlikely to have taken away anything from the physical side of Stoke's game. It's likely to be an interesting battle as Manchester City are generally known as quite lightweight, especially in attack, and here, we take a look at 5 Key Battles for Stoke vs Man City.