After the visit of Catalan giants Barcelona during the week in the Champions League, Manchester City are looking to recover from their defeat at the hands of Tata Martino against Stoke City, who make the trip to The Etihad this Saturday, under Mark Hughes, a manager sacked my Manchester City little over four years ago. This game comes with City not having won in their last two league games, and having only won once in their last four in all competitions – admittedly, with two games against Chelsea and one against Barça.

Most will be confident the hosts can recover from some disappointing results with a win this weekend, returning to their glorious home form which has seen them win all but win home game this season, including big wins against Tottenham and Arsenal, amongst others. Meanwhile Stoke, who have won just 2 of their last 9, will want to get a win in order to aid their survival challenge and also for their manager.

There are sure to be some bitter feelings in the dugouts at Saturday’s game. Hughes was sacked by The Blues in December 2009 with the team on mixed form. For a team budding to achieve Champions League qualification, there were simply not enough wins for that to be a realistic aim. Indeed, the Welshman won just 2 of his last 11 in charge, with 8 consecutive draws in that spell. He was replaced by Roberto Mancini in the position, and has since made no secret his distaste as his sacking. He will feel a win in Saturday’s Premier League clash would be the ideal revenge over his old team.

With Manchester City having suffered key injuries in recent weeks, they will be glad to see the squad is getting back to full fitness. Fernandinho returned to the side during the week against Barcelona and performed well, whilst Samir Nasri also recovered from his injury to play against Chelsea last weekend. Meanwhile, Matija Nastasić and Sergio Agüero could both be in line to play against The Potters, having recovered from knee and hamstring injuries respectively. That leaves no-one on Manchester City’s injury list with a cup final at Wembley in just over a week.

Stoke City also have very few injury problems to concern them. Matthew Etherington and Andy Wilkinson could both be in the team to play The Citizens, having sufficiently recovered from calf and ankle injuries. Robert Huth, a sterling presence at the back for The Potters will miss the game however, as he has a knee problem. That is a good sign for The Blues, with the German defender a big part of the Stoke side.

In their last game against Stoke, at The Britannia back in September, Saturday’s hosts came away with what was a disappointing 0-0 draw, back when they struggled for away form and suffered three defeats quickly at the start of the season. Most notably, Stevan Jovetić did make a rare appearance, before then struggling with injury for several months. Now back to fitness, the Montenegrin is making a big impression on the City side, and could well come good for The Blues. 

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Ben Warner
Manchester City writer for VAVEL and others; press man for Maine Road FC.