Hughes has strength and style at Stoke to right Man City record

Jamie Clark, Sports Editor | December 3, 2015

Since being sacked by Manchester City almost six years ago, Mark Hughes has won just one match in eight attempts against his former employers.

It’s by no accident that it came at current club Stoke City away to the Etihad outfit last season – courtesy of a stunning Mame Biram Diouf goal, coupled with an outstanding rearguard action. Coral rate the Potters as 17/4 chances to repeat victory on home soil on Saturday lunchtime.

Two draws and five defeats from the other seven show the gap in resources Hughes has had to try and bridge in his work with Fulham, then an especially mercenary bunch at QPR, and now his Britannia boys.

How Hughes has advantage over other bosses

A distinguished playing career – taking in Barcelona and Bayern Munich, plus Manchester United and Chelsea among others – means Hughes has always been able to attract players to less fashionable teams that he’s managed. Nowhere have the rewards of this been reaped more than by the Potters.

Building on previous signings during his two-and-a-half years in charge of Stoke, Hughes has added increasingly high-profile names to his roster. Austrian attacker Marko Arnautovic was arguably the marquee arrival of his first campaign in the Potteries (2013/14), followed by the bargain buy of Spain cap Bojan Krkic last term, and acquisitions of Ibrahim Afellay and Xherdan Shaqiri this summer.

Synthesising foreign flair players in attack like these with the hard-working spine and defence established by Potters predecessor Tony Pulis proved fruitful in that 1-0 Etihad upset in August 2014. It will continue to serve the Midlands men well.