Stoke City manager Mark Hughes: "For whatever reason, people talk about pressure; in hindsight the Man City result took a bit longer to get out our system, but we've done that this week and I'm pleased as punch.

"We understood what they would try and do and it was food and drink for our centre halves. We had the better chances; with Saido [Berahino] and Charlie [Adam] at the end...he told me he lost his bearing.

"But overall it's a good performance, we've had a tough set of fixtures. We aren't doing as badly as people make out and we'll be fine.

"We could allow them to have possession of the ball and as long as we didn't make individual errors. They pushed us back in the second half as you might expect."

On the free-kick routine which led to Darren Fletcher's winner: "Mark Bowen [assistant manager] does a lot of work on set plays...I signed it off. We practiced it on Friday and Fletch's efforts weren't as good as they were today. Thankfully it has won us the game."