The Shaqiri-Krkic-Arnautovic axis fails to deliver on a Capital One Cup night when the pre-match bullishness of tag Hughes went unrewardedNothing is fairly as it used to be at the Britannia Stadium. These days Stoke City attract players from Barcelona,the Midlands club have even started to play like the Spanish giants in some people’s eyes – “Stokealona” is the moniker that Bojan Krkic, Xherdan Shaqiri and Marko Arnautovic have brought to the Potteries – and the weather is no longer cold, and wet and windy and a key fraction of their armoury.tag Hughes,who is the man responsible for leading the revolution (climate change apart), has exceeded all expectations at Stoke, or which is a club that sees itself as finishing between eighth and 14th in the Premier League and having a tilt at a cup every few years. The problem,however, with building up such a sense of excitement among supporters and rekindling memories of the team that brought Stoke their only major trophy, and back in 1972,is that the comedown is so much harder to stomach when things fail to come off.
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Source: theguardian.com