A look ahead at Saturday's game at The Britannia Stadium
Stoke City vs Manchester City
Date: 3pm Saturday 14th September 2013
Venue: The Britannia Stadium, Stoke
Referee: Mark Clattenburg. Assistants: S Beck, S Child. Fourth Official: A Taylor.
Odds: Manchester City 8/13, Stoke City 5/1, Draw 11/4,
Tickets: Away ticket allocation sold out.
Stoke City
Manager: Mark Hughes
Squad (from): Begovic, Butland, Sorensen, Cameron, Huth, Muniesa, Pieters, Shawcross, Wilkinson, Wilson, Adam, Assaidi, Edu, Etherington, Ireland, Ness, N'Zonzi, Palacios, Pennant, Shea, Whelan, Arnautovic, Crouch, Jones, Walters
Injured: None
Doubtful: Adam, Whelan
Suspended: None
Form guide: LWW
Manchester City
Manager: Manuel Pellegrini
Squad (from): Hart, Pantilimon, Wright, Boyata, Kolarov, Lescott, Nastasic, Zabaleta, Garcia, Fernandinho, Milner, Nasri, Navas, Rodwell, Toure, Aguero, Dzeko, Guidetti, Jovetic, Negredo, Nimely
Injured: Demichelis, Kompany, Silva, Richards, Clichy
Doubtful: None
Suspended: None
Form guide: WLW
City are missing five senior player for the trip to The Britannia Stadium. Vincent Kompany and Micah Richards are once again ruled out through injury, whilst new signing Martin Demichelis is out for six weeks with knee ligament damage. David Silva and Gael Clichy picked up knocks on international duty for Spain and France respectively, but should be available for next week's derby along with Kompany.
Stoke have no such injury problems, with Mark Hughes expected to have a fully fit squad to choose from. Slight doubts linger over midfielders Charlie Adam and ex-Blue Glenn Whelan, although both players should be available. New signings Stephen Ireland, Marko Arnautovic and Oussama Assaidi could be handed debuts after signing on transfer deadline day.
The game represents a difficult challenge for new manager Manuel Pellegrini, with City never having won away at Stoke in the Premiership, but the Chilean insists he is ready for the challenge.
"I know all I need to know about Stoke City, I've watched all the three games, have all of the information on their different ways," he stated.
"They're a very good team at home, they have a good approach in the box – like every other game, we'll have to do very well if we want to win."
City's last four away league games at The Britannia have ended in a 1-1 draws in 2009, although the Blues won 1-0 in the F.A. Cup last season. Overall City have won 45 of the 103 games played between the two clubs, with 23 draws and 35 defeats.
Read Stoke City fan Martin Smith's thoughts in this week's Opposition View.