Guardiola into the unknown?

Pep Guardiola’s first Premier League away game as Manchester City head coach takes him to Stoke City. It’s styled by some as the ultimate test for the man who made tiki-taka famous but things are not that simple, writes Adam Bate.

It has been newly-rebranded as the Bet365 Stadium this summer, but there is still something refreshingly old-school about the home of Stoke City. Unlikely as it might seem for a ground not yet 20 years old, over the past decade this 28,000-seater stadium just off the A50 has become perhaps the most evocative venue in the Premier League.

It conjures images of a small pitch with big throws, raucous crowds cheering away, and the country’s most famous clubs getting bloody nose after bloody nose. It all began with a win over Aston Villa in 2008 and the hits just keep on coming. Next year will even see the release of a book on Premier League tactics entitled A Wet and Windy Night at Stoke.

Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester City were all beaten at the Brit in Stoke’s first Premier League campaign and City haven’t found it much easier since. They didn’t win at Stoke until the seventh attempt and were beaten again there in December. For that reason among others, it’s the ideal setting for Pep Guardiola’s first taste of a Premier League away day.

It’s not difficult to detect an appetite to see Guardiola left perplexed by the challenge. Indeed, some seem to be salivating at the prospect. This is the real test, they’ll say. It’s one thing to put continental opponents on the carousel but now it’s time for a go on the …

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