'It's a brilliant time to be a Stoke fan again'
- Published
This time last week, everyone was worried whether Stoke City had enough goals in the side to sustain their brilliant start to the season.
Two games and eight goals later, those worries have been emphatically dismissed.
Stoke scored three great goals at Oxford, Lewis Baker doubled his tally for the season with a brace and Steven Nzonzi scored a brilliant goal, his first since rejoining the club.
Nzonzi described it as a "good hit", looking and sounding typically cool as he did so and promised that there's more to come from him as he plays his way up to full fitness.
Given he looked like a Rolls Royce at times despite the difficult conditions, that's brilliant to hear and gives Mark Robins the right sort of selection dilemmas in midfield.
Baker has played well in an advanced role and as a deep-lying midfielder and Nzonzi has put himself firmly in the conversation to start more games despite the performances of Tatsuki Seko, possibly Stoke's most improved player this season.
Tomas Rigo has shown his quality in flashes and will get better as he acclimatises to English football and Ben Pearson has been a dependable presence whenever he's been called upon.
Bae Junho remains an enigma but has bags of talent, leaving Robins with plenty of options to choose from.
The prospect of a home game against top of the table Coventry with The Potters in second is as exciting as anything Stoke have had to look forward to since relegation from the Premier League.
It's a brilliant time to be a Stoke fan again.
