Stoke City beat Aston Villa 2-1 this afternoon to move into the top half of the Premier League table.
Goals from Charlie Adam and Peter Crouch, either side of Libor Kozak's reply, earned the Potters maximum points and inflicted a third straight loss on the visitors.
Villa manager Paul Lambert may feel that decisions did not go his side's way, though, with Marc Wilson fortunate to escape without a first-half red card for denying Andreas Weimann a goalscoring opportunity.
Below, Sports Mole analyses whether the result was reflective of the action at the Britannia Stadium.
Match statistics:
Stoke:
Shots: 12
On target: 2
Possession: 53%
Corners: 6
Fouls: 13
Villa:
Shots: 14
On target: 4
Possession: 47%
Corners: 7
Fouls: 17
Was the result fair?
Stoke were the better side. Lambert will point to Wilson's foul on Weimann and a possible handball by Crouch as incidents where the game could have changed in Villa's favour, but his side did not do enough to deserve a positive result from this contest. The statistics indicate that they were the more attacking of the two sides, but that is not a fair representation of their struggles to create any clear-cut chances.
Stoke's performance:
The Potters continue to look difficult to beat on their own patch. They never looked like losing this one, with the only question being whether they had the guile to open up Villa themselves. Their first goal was a bit of a flashback to the Stoke of old, with Crouch flicking on for Adam, and in a scrappy game, there was less evidence of the passing style that manager Mark Hughes is trying to implement than previously seen. They very much focused on getting the ball wide, and although service into the box was inconsistent, rampaging full-back Geoff Cameron produced an excellent cross that provided Crouch with the match-winning goal.
Villa's performance:
Their biggest problem today was their inability to keep the ball. So often did they give it away in midfield that they could never establish periods of sustained pressure on the Stoke back line. In contrast, the visiting defence were slightly lost without the leadership of Ron Vlaar, and Villa have conceded eight goals and lost three times in the recent matches that he has not played. Kozak was a decent focal point of their attack, but despite Weimann's best efforts, he was almost always short of support.
Sports Mole's man of the match:
Peter Crouch: It was clear from the outset that the ex-England frontman was trying to attach himself to Chris Herd, and he used his substantial height advantage over Villa's utility man to win the knockdown for Adam's opener. He later scored just his second goal in his last nine games to secure the points. A goal and an assist - Hughes could not have asked for much more from one of his central figures.
Biggest gaffe:
Erik Pieters gifted Villa a way back into the match when the visitors looked unlikely to fashion one themselves. He should have been aware of Kozak's presence between him and the goal when he headed backwards and allowed the £7m signing from Lazio to sweep home the equaliser from close range.
Referee's performance:
Craig Pawson had a lot to deal with on only his fifth outing as a Premier League official. Villa will argue that the relative rookie got a few of the big decisions wrong, with Wilson certainly fortunate to only see a yellow card for hacking down Weimann and arguably denying him a goalscoring opportunity. The apparent handball against Crouch in the buildup to his goal was less clear-cut and therefore Pawson, who otherwise handled a feisty and at times ugly encounter with a certain amount of authority and calmness, cannot be too heavily scrutinised for Villa's loss.
What next?
Stoke: The Potters begin a sequence of three games in six days with trips to two European hopefuls, as they travel to Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday and Sunday respectively.
Villa: Lambert will be hoping to halt his side's recent slide with positive results in two upcoming home games, as first Swansea City and then Crystal Palace visit Villa Park over the festive period.
Joe Fish
