3 reasons why Stoke City will turn their season around

Mark Hughes’ Stoke City currently find themselves second bottom in the Premier League after a winless start to the league season.

The Potters have picked up just three points from their first seven matches, with draws against Middlesbrough, West Bromwich Albion, and Manchester United the only slight positive in an otherwise forgettable few weeks.

Potters boss, Hughes – Photo: Paul Roberts / Offside.

Their only win of the season was a 4-0 triumph at Stevenage in the second round of the EFL Cup, but that cup run was soon halted in the following round by fellow Premier League side Hull City.

It’s been far from the ideal start for Hughes’ men, but there are signs to be optimistic for Stoke fans up and down the country.

Here are THREE reasons why Stoke will turn their season around…

They’ve got real quality in all areas of the pitch

Summer signing, Allen – Photo: Mark Leech / Offside.

Unlike a number of sides nearer the lower echelons of the Premier League table, Stoke have quality in a number of areas on the pitch.

In Ryan Shawcross they have one of the strongest centre-backs in the division, while full-back Erik Pieters has shown to be both good going forward as well as at the back.

Joe Allen joined the club from Liverpool in the summer, and has settled into his role in the centre of midfield brilliantly, netting twice already, including the equaliser at Old Trafford last weekend.

Xherdan Shaqiri, Bojan, Marko Arnautovic are all excellent attacking players, and the loan signing of Wilfried Bony from Manchester City is a great bit of business, such is his quality in the final third.

Stoke have got a really good team – it’s only a matter of time before it all clicks and they start climbing the table.

They’ve started similarly before, and finished top-half

Photo: Simon Stacpoole / Offside.

Cast your minds back 12 months, and you’ll notice that Stoke didn’t start the 2015/16 season particularly well either.

They picked up just three points from their opening six matches, which left them in the bottom three alongside Newcastle United and Sunderland.

They then won three on the spin against AFC Bournemouth, Aston Villa, and Swansea City, which propelled them to the middle of the table. They went on to finish ninth last term.

They’ve been in a similar situation before, and they know that they are good enough to pull themselves away from danger before the relegation dogfight begins.

The recovery has already started

Stoke winger – Photo: Mark Leech / Offside.

Although they didn’t get that elusive first victory of the season, Stoke were much-improved against Manchester United on Sunday.

They were resilient throughout and, although they conceded the opener twenty minutes from time, they didn’t let that affect them, and Allen punished United for wasteful first-half finishing by salvaging a point late on.

That late goal would have changed the whole complexion of the international break at the Bet365 Stadium. Instead of going into the fortnight bottom of the league, they now have a performance and result to build on.

The recovery has already begun, and a crunch match against Sunderland, the only side below them in the table, after the international break will give them a real chance to build on that point at Old Trafford.