Man City Woes Continue With Defeat To 10-Man Stoke

Stoke spent almost the entire second half packed in their own half as City launched wave after wave of attacks.

Manchester City signed off on a miserable month on Saturday when their expensively assembled team were beaten 1-0 away by a Stoke City team who played more than half the game with 10 men.

Second-bottom Stoke had not won for nine league games and had not scored at home in their previous four but they produced a resilient performance after having Rory Delap sent off after 38 minutes for kicking at winger Shaun Wright-Phillips.

They scored the game's only goal in first-half injury time with an excellent James Beattie header from a Matthew Etherington cross.

Stoke spent almost the entire second half packed in their own half as City launched wave after wave of attacks.

However, despite the presence of the likes of Robinho and big-money new signings Craig Bellamy and Nigel De Jong, there was little creativity about their work and they were largely reduced to long-range shots, mostly high over the bar.

Earlier this month Mark Hughes's team were knocked out of the FA Cup at home by Championship (second division) Nottingham Forest and then suffered a series of off-field setbacks, including their failure to sign Kaka from AC Milan.

English Premier League RESULT and
STANDINGS on Saturday
Stoke City 1 Manchester City 0

 Standings            P  W  D L  F  A  Pts
  1 Manchester United    22 15 5  2 39 10 50
  2 Chelsea              23 14 6  3 44 13 48
  3 Liverpool            23 13 9  1 37 15 48
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  4 Aston Villa          23 14 5  4 38 24 47
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  5 Arsenal              23 12 6  5 38 25 42
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  6 Everton              23 10 7  6 31 27 37
  7 Wigan Athletic       23  9 5  9 26 24 32
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  8 West Ham United      23  9 5  9 31 31 32
  9 Manchester City      23  8 4 11 41 32 28
 10 Hull City            23  7 6 10 29 44 27
 11 Fulham               21  6 8  7 19 18 26
 12 Sunderland           23  7 5 11 24 32 26
 13 Tottenham Hotspur    23  6 6 11 24 28 24
 14 Bolton Wanderers     23  7 3 13 24 32 24
 15 Portsmouth           22  6 6 10 22 35 24
 16 Stoke City           24  6 6 12 21 38 24
 17 Newcastle United     23  5 8 10 29 39 23
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 18 Blackburn Rovers     22  5 7 10 27 38 22
 19 Middlesbrough        23  5 6 12 18 35 21
 20 West Bromwich Albion 23  6 3 14 20 42 21
 1-3:   Champions League / EC I
 4:     Champions League preliminary round
 5:     UEFA Cup
 6-7:   UEFA Cup depending on domestic cup
 18-20: Relegation

 Still to play on Saturday (GMT)
 Arsenal              v West Ham United      (1500)
 Aston Villa          v Wigan Athletic       (1500)
 Bolton Wanderers     v Tottenham Hotspur    (1500)
 Fulham               v Portsmouth           (1500)
 Hull City            v West Bromwich Albion (1500)
 Middlesbrough        v Blackburn Rovers     (1500)
 Manchester United    v Everton              (1730)

 Playing on Sunday (GMT)
 Newcastle United     v Sunderland           (1330)
 Liverpool            v Chelsea              (1600)