Stoke were looking for more than just mid-table consolidation this season and made quite a statement with the signing of a truly elite player in Xherdan Shaqiri from Inter. But the squad was not too different from last season and Mark Hughes was once again going to rely mostly on muscle in midfield and the bouts of flair and quality of Marko Arnautovi, Bojan Krkic and new signing Shaqiri. Stoke had a rather frustrating start of the season as they failed to win any of the first six games, even if they were playing some decent stuff and were not getting outplayed too often. But they started to find their feet after a tough late win over Bournemouth and went on a run of six wins in nine games leading to September. They pulled off the scalps of Chelsea and Manchester City during that run and also managed to get on an extended run of clean sheets away from home, having down Southampton and Swansea along the way. Jack Butland filled seamlessly the boots of Asmir Begovic on goal and started to justify his reputation as a hugely promising keeper. Arnautovic emerged as the leading player in the side as he was bringing some real quality on consistent basis. The rest of the side were chipping in with the odd goal here and there but the team rarely hit genuine heights and remained off the top six throughout the season. They claimed a couple of superb wins during the festive period as Manchester United were outclassed at the Britannia and then the Potters pulled off a dramatic late comeback at Everton. They had a high point in the season in January when they moved up to seventh for a a week. Yet that was as good as it got for them as injuries began to bite and the team suddenly started momentum. They lost heavily 3:0 in three consecutive games and suddenly looked like a side devoid of life and attacking drive. That meant that the rest of the season was mostly a meandering existence in mid-table. There was an upturn in form after winning three games in a row but the players did not seem to believe that a European charge was on the cards and instead drifted for the rest of the season. They managed to beat only Watford in a run of nine games heading to the last week of the season and were served up some real trouncing during that run, with Liverpool, Tottenham and Manchester City all scoring four goals against them. A final-day win over West Ham ensured a top-half finish and overall Stoke have done as well as expected. But there is real potential in this squad and they managed to show it only intermittently over the course of the season. Hughes will be determined to bring more consistency into the team next
