Manchester City and Stoke City both maintained their unbeaten starts to the season this afternoon with a 1-1 draw at the Britannia Stadium.
Stoke took a shock lead through Peter Crouch before debutant Javi Garcia levelled the sides for City.
Roberto Mancini's men came so close to taking all three points with the penultimate kick of the game, but Edin Dzeko's shot was brilliantly cleared off the line by Ryan Shawcross.
Here, Sports Mole dissects Stoke's fourth draw in a row.
Match Statistics:
Stoke:
Shots: 4
On target: 3
Possession: 46%
Corners: 6
Fouls: 12
Man City:
Shots: 15
On target: 11
Possession: 54%
Corners: 5
Fouls: 12
Was the result fair?
Probably just about, yes. Man City definitely had the better chances and the stats suggest that they deserved all three points, but it would be hard to begrudge Stoke a point. They played well and, apart from a spell towards the end of the first half, were very hard to break down. If anyone deserved the win then it was the champions, but Stoke by no means stole a point.
Stoke's performance
Pulis will be happy with a point against the champions, and he will be even happier with his team's performance. At times they were the better team, and they didn't look like they wanted to settle for just the one point. He will be disappointed at the goal they conceded, but there were more positives than negatives for sure.
Man City's performance
It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't the display of champions. At times they looked short of ideas when trying to break down the Stoke defence and it took a set piece for them to get their equaliser. Mancini knows that the Britannia is a tough place to go to, but he would have still been expecting a win.
Sports Mole's man of the match
Very few players really shone during the match, but Steven N'Zonzi was perhaps the one shining brightest. The midfielder made a solid and assured debut for the hosts despite being up against some of the world's best players.
Biggest gaffe
This one has to go to Stoke's defending for Man City's equaliser. For a team usually so dangerous from set pieces going forward, they looked all at sea defensively when Tevez's cross came in, and Javi Martinez was left free to header home.
Referee's performance
Mark Clattenburg was refreshingly lenient. Many Stoke games are broken up by foul after foul being given due to their physical approach, but Clattenburg let a lot go. Sometimes he was perhaps too lenient, but overall he did well to try to let the game flow. The one big decision to make was whether Crouch handled the ball in the build-up to his goal, but it was a very hard one to judge, even after seeing a number of replays.
What next?
Stoke: Things don't get any easier for Stoke. Their next match comes away to Chelsea.
Man City: City, meanwhile, have a mouth-watering Champions League tie against Real Madrid to look forward to on Tuesday before returning to domestic action against Arsenal.
Barney Corkhill
