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Marko Arnautovic scored twice to hand Stoke City a superb victory over Premier League leaders Manchester City.
Xherdan Shaqiri created both of Arnautovic’s first-half goals in an inspired performance by the Swiss.
Arnautovic nudged home Shaqiri’s cross for the opener and then finished off a perfectly weighted through ball from his team-mate.
Man City, with Sergio Aguero and Yaya Toure out injured, lacked ideas and have not won in four away league games.
The few chances they did create were met by the impressive Jack Butland, as the Stoke keeper kept out efforts from Kevin de Bruyne and Aleksandar Kolarov with sharp saves.
Relive Stoke’s 2-0 win over Man City
Stoke’s ‘Alpine Messi’
On the left are all the touches by Stoke’s Marko Arnautovic. On the right are the touches of Man City’s Wilfried Bony, who only touched the ball once in the area
Former Basel and Bayern Munich midfielder Shaqiri had not set the world alight for the Potters so far this term after arriving from Inter Milan in the summer.
But the man nicknamed the Alpine Messi – for his similarities to Lionel Messi in both stature and creative ability – tore Manchester City apart with ease.
He strode past three visiting players before providing the cross for the opener and regularly found Arnautovic with penetrating balls behind the defence.
Stoke, who sit in mid-table, have built up a reputation for being a sturdy and uninspiring side, but the Potters’ attacking four of Arnautovic, Shaqiri, Ibrahim Afellay and Bojan Krkic provided movement and verve to show that Mark Hughes’ team are evolving and progressing.
Man City just messy
Manuel Pellegrini bemoaned his side’s injury situation after the game, particularly the absence of defender Vincent Kompany.
Belgian Kompany has not featured since early November because of a calf injury. His side have conceded just once with him on the pitch this term and let in 15 without him.
But the visitors were toothless going forward, with Aguero’s stand-in Wilfried Bony barely seeing the ball and creators-in-chief De Bruyne and David Silva constantly closed down by Stoke pressure.
Pellegrini introduced Jesus Navas, Fabian Delph and Kelechi Iheanacho early in the second half in an attempt to rescue the game, but that only led to his side playing the final 15 minutes with 10 men as Fernandinho hobbled off with a hamstring problem.
Man of the match – Xherdan Shaqiri
An easy one this. Shaqiri’s guile and urgency was unmatched and Man City looked terrified every time he collected the ball
What they said
Stoke manager Mark Hughes: “It was a great performance by the guys. Each and every one of them put in a high-level performance and as a consequence of that we were able to win against the team top of the pile
“We played with an energetic three in midfield, we were on the front foot in midfield and we unsettled them. We always had a threat up front.
“We haven’t played Bojan right up front before but I have been close to doing it in the past. We needed to retain possession in key areas and the three up top allowed us to do that.”
Stoke midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri: “We tried this [partnership with Marko Arnautovic] all week in training so we of course are happy that we scored in the game like this.
“We have a very good team, we can win against every team in the Premier League.”
Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini: “We had a lack of reaction, too many games for the same players.
“We defended very badly but we also had not too many chances to score. We are playing with 13 players in all competitions. It was a defeat.
“I always miss important names, but you have to play with the players you have. We must continue with the same 11 or 12 players.”
The stats you need to know
- Stoke scored more than once in a Premier League game against Man City for the first time.
- Man City have failed to score in their last three on the road for the first time since April 2009.
- Stoke have lost just one of their eight home Premier League clashes against Man City (W2 D5).
- Man City have kept just two clean sheets in their last 10 Premier League games, having kept six in a row prior to that.
- Man City have won none of their last 59 Premier League games in which they’ve been at least two goals behind (D3 L56), since a 3-2 win at Norwich in February 2005.
- Stoke have kept six clean sheets in their last eight Premier League games.
- Arnautovic has been involved in seven goals in his last seven league games at the Britannia (3 goals, 4 assists). He scored with both of his shots on target today.
What next?
Stoke will need to prove that they can repeat this vibrant performance when they travel to West Ham on Saturday. Man City host Borussia Monchengladbach in their final Champions League group game on Tuesday, and still have an outside chance of topping the group.
BBC Sport