Probable Lineups
Team News
- Stoke will field a strong team for the visit of Manchester City, having put out the vast majority of their first team to beat Crystal Palace in their 3rd round replay.
- The main question mark hangs over the fitness of Andy Wilkinson who has a back injury and was subbed off against Palace. Dean Whitehead filled in there against Swansea and may be asked to do so again.
- Thomas Sorensen should play in goal, preferred over Asmir Begovic in cup competitions so far this season.
- Pablo Zabaleta is expected to recover from an ankle sprain in time for this game to play at right-back with Maicon and Richards both ruled out.
- Even though the Premier League remains City's priority, they will field a strong team here as they will want to go all the way in the FA Cup as well.
- The Toure brothers are away at AFCON and are thus unavailable.
Prediction
- The Brittania is always a tough place to go, particularly for the big teams, as the home crowd and players seem to raise their levels for the bigger games.
- While City tend to dominate at home to Stoke - winning each of the last four without conceding - there is a quite different trend between these teams at Stoke, with each of the last 5 such meetings ending in a 1-1 scoreline (after 90 minuties, with Stoke winning the only cup game 3-1 in extra time).
- Stoke have gone ahead in 4 of those 5 games before conceding an equaliser, and while it would seem outrageous for a 1-1 to occur for a sixth time, these games tend to follow a pattern and could do so again.
© WhoScored.com
Latest Comments
Data sources:
