Stoke City Football Club News

• Nickname:Potters
• Founded:1863
• Manager:Tony Pulis

• Ground:Britannia Stadium
• Capacity:28,218

Pulis: Stoke have improved

07 Dec 2009 - 07:11:08

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Stoke City manager Tony Pulis took the positives from his side's 2-0 defeat at Arsenal, insisting that the Potters have grown in stature since last season.

City were beaten 4-1 at the Emirates Stadium towards the end of the 2008-09 campaign and Pulis saw reasons to be upbeat after a much closer encounter.

He told the club's official website: "Once again this was a big improvement on our display here last season, even though we rode our luck at times and had Thomas Sorensen to thank for some fantastic saves.

"We were murdered when we came here last season, but on this occasion we were still in the game going into the closing stages.

"Indeed, we had our best period just before they got their second and we felt they would get a bit uptight near the end of the game."

Pulis went on to praise Russia striker Andrey Arshavin, who was the star of the show for the Gunners.

He added: "I thought Arshavin was brilliant. His movement was brilliant. They played him up front from the start and that gave him more room and license to roam.

"He caused both our centre-halves problems from start to finish. He's a great player."