Stoke City welcome newly-promoted Bournemouth to the Britannia Stadium on Saturday as Mark Hughes and his charges still find themselves searching for their first Premier League win of the season.
As for the visitors, Eddie Howe's men have already picked up two wins this term and are looking to build from a solid victory over Sunderland last time out.
Stoke City
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Hughes has hardly had the start to the season he surely expected, with the club without a win in their first six Premier League games.
Despite the signings of Xherdan Shaqiri and Joselu, the club have found things tough going forward and as a result have produced a league-low 79 touches in the opposition box in the early stages of the campaign.
That kind of lacklustre approach to attacking play has left the Potteries club in the relegation zone with three losses and three draws to their name.
Hughes will be irritated at needlessly dropping points at home, after his men succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of West Bromwich Albion, before throwing away a two-goal lead to draw with Leicester City a few weeks later.
Stoke clearly have the quality required to create chances, as witnessed through Bojan Krkic's goal against the Foxes last weekend, but City fans will be worried about the likeliness of those kind of moves clicking together on a more consistent basis.
The club will not be worrying about their position in the table just yet, although they will need to start picking up some results in order to keep the pressure of the table off their backs. A home fixture against a newly-promoted club should surely give Hughes and his men the perfect opportunity to finally pick up a win.
Recent form: LDDLLD
Bournemouth
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Bournemouth boss Howe will likely be pleased with how his men have started life in the Premier League, given that the new boys have picked up two wins and a draw after six matches.
What will be even more pleasing is just how impressively Callum Wilson has adjusted to life at the top. The frontman has scored five already despite only registering eight shots at goal.
To partner some solid attacking work, Bournemouth have also produced some standout collective displays to earn wins against West Ham United and Sunderland. As it stands, only Manchester City and Southampton have allowed their opponents fewer shots on target than the Cherries.
The club come into this fixture off the back of a slender League Cup win over Preston North End, while their last Premier League exploits saw them overcome the Black Cats 2-0 at Dean Court.
Bournemouth have already shown that they are capable of putting teams to the sword, and what has been most impressive is that they recovered well from early-season defeats to Liverpool and Aston Villa to still go on and build an impressive platform to work from for the rest of the season.
Other than that away win at West Ham, however, the Cherries have picked up precious few points on the road and they could well come unstuck against a Stoke side that has tended to do well on home soil over the past few years.
Recent form: LLWDLW
Team News
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Hughes will be pleased that he has both Charlie Adam and Ibrahim Afellay back from suspension, with both players pushing for a starting place.
Mame Biram Diouf could make a late push to start up top, but if not striking duties will fall to either Jon Walters or Peter Crouch.
Given Bournemouth's commanding win over Sunderland last time out, it is unlikely that Howe will make any changes to his starting XI.
Sylvain Distin and Steve Cook are expected to continue in the heart of defence following the absence of skipper Tommy Elphick. Eunan O'Kane will be hoping to give his manager something to think about as he seeks to usurp Dan Gosling in the middle of the park.
Stoke City possible starting lineup:
Butland; Pieters, Wilson, Cameron, Johnson; Ginkel, Whelan; Arnautovic, Bojan, Shaqiri; Crouch
Bournemouth possible starting lineup:
Boruc; Daniels, Cook, Distin, Francis; Pugh, Surman, Gosling, Ritchie; Tomlin; Wilson
Head To Head
Stoke have come out on top over the past six meetings between the two teams, the Potteries winning four and losing two. The two sides last met in the FA Cup in 2003, in a game that Stoke were able to win 3-0 on home soil. Going back further than that, the clubs met on several occasions in League One, where Stoke won three and Bournemouth two across their last five fixtures in the lower leagues of English football.
We say: Stoke City 2-1 Bournemouth
Stoke have won their last four home matches against Bournemouth in all competitions and they should finally be able to pick up a Premier League win with victory over Howe's side on Saturday. The visitors have the ability to cause numerous problems, but Stoke have adequate quality too and should be able to make it count in front of a hostile Britannia faithful.
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