The Potters host Birmingham this Bank Holiday in a game that sees a team struggling against a team who just keep on picking up points. Stoke have kept there impressive home record this season and have already beaten Burnley,West Ham, Sunderland and Portsmouth whilst only losing to Manchester United and Chelsea. Birmingham are on a flying run at present and a resolute defensive showing saw them earn a goalless draw with Chelsea two days ago.
In the 47 matches between these sides at Stoke, the Potters have won 28, the visitors 8 and eleven have been drawn. The last time the pair clashed at the Britannia, in 2006, saw the game end 0-0. Stoke have not scored a goal against the blue half of Birmingham since 1997, seven games ago. Overall Brum have won 30 times to the Potters 40.
Rory Delap will be making his 100th start for Stoke should he start Saturdays game.
Martin Atkinson is taking charge of Mondays game. He has refereed both sides once this season, Stoke winning 2-1 versus West Ham and Brum's 2-1 victpry over Sunderland and, last season took charge as Stoke beat West Brom and Man City aswell as the defeats against Chelsea and Arsenal.
Prediction: The Potters will come out all guns blazing and take a two goal lead thanks to Fuller and Tuncay. After weathering a second half storm, conceding to Benitez, Etherington aprints clear late on and seals the win
Stoke proudly sit 11th in the Premier League but are still only a couple of results away from the bottom three and have a tough set of fixtures coming up. Birmingham are flying high in the top eight and are unbeaten in eight.
The Met Office report that there will be sunny intervals, temperatures of a chilly 2 degrees celsius, good visibility and a breezy 17mph wind.