Talking points from the bet365 Stadium including Divin Mubama finding his clinical side, Junior Tchamadeu rewarding his manager, a plan from the training ground for Million Manhoef and congratulations to Viktor Johansson
05:00, 02 Nov 2025
Stoke City's Million Manhoef (second left) celebrates scoring their side's third goal against Bristol City
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Stoke City's Million Manhoef (second left) celebrates scoring their side's third goal against Bristol City
Stoke City produced a stellar performance to beat play-off hopefuls Bristol City 5-1, with Divin Mubama scoring a hat-trick and Junior Tchamadeu and Million Manhoef both grabbing excellent goals. It was a win that lifts the Potters up to third in the Championship ahead of a mid-week trip to Oxford and return to take on leaders Coventry at home next weekend. Here are the talking points from the bet365 Stadium.
Junior Tchamadeu rewards Robins
Mark Robins has put his faith in Junior Tchamadeu as Stoke’s number one right-back and had no hesitation about putting him straight back in the side after serving suspension. In fact, he had given him a ringing endorsement after the defender had picked up his fifth booking to be ruled out of the Portsmouth match when other managers might have gone into attack mode.
What transpired against Bristol City was by far Tchamadeu’s best performance in a Stoke shirt, going from force of nature to suddenly supply a deft touch here or there in a brilliant partnership with Million Manhoef down the right wing. His own goal was superbly taken, bombarding into the penalty area with power, pace and guile.
"He's got it in his locker, hasn't he?” said Robins. “It opened up in front of him and the good thing about that, today, was the decision making on the ball in the final third was better than it has been and the execution then becomes better than it has been. I'm really pleased.
"They moved for each other, they passed to each other, they were unselfish when they needed to be and they were clinical when the chances came. It was fantastic, a really good performance and a good start to a three-game block."
Divin Mubama shows ruthless side
Stoke’s first hat-trick since Tom Cannon scored four in a 6-1 win over Portsmouth a year ago. This on-loan striker, aged 21, had been getting into some good positions in previous weeks without capping that with a clinical touch but he has hopefully got the taste for it now.
“Brilliant,” said Robins. “It was his first senior hat-trick and I thought he took it well. The first one was fantastic. We had the movement down the right and the link-up between Million and Junior and then Junior gets into a position where he picks the perfect ball and Divin is right in the middle of the goal but he's finished it brilliantly. It was a fantastic goal and fantastic to get us on our way after four minutes.
“The next one comes along with a mistake from the goalkeeper. I don't know what's happened but there were a couple of those. The surface was wet and he's just spilled it out to Divin to prod it in. That was a good finish in itself. If you're presented with that you can be on the back foot and think, 'What's happened there?' Just put it in the net and ask questions later. That's the right way to do it.
“We started the second half in the same vein. Divin gets his hat-trick, Junior gets his goal and they were really good finishes. There was some really good football played. I'm delighted.”
A plan for Million Manhoef
Everyone in the Championship knows that Million Manhoef likes to cut inside on his left foot to try to get a shot away – so how to help get around defence’s plans?
This time he slipped a pass to Mubama and bought himself space to get the return ball and then dummy before gliding it into the far corner.
Funnily enough, he had been doing that in the warm-up in front of the Boothen End and it seemed like something from the training ground.
“Mil's goal was brilliant, a brilliant finish,” said Robins. “It was something we've been discussing, him and I, for a little while. It was fantastic the way it came about and a brilliant finish.”
A big week for Viktor Johansson
Congratulations to Viktor Johansson, who celebrated the birth of his second son in Stockholm this week before flying back to chuck himself in the Stoke penalty area like a 10-year-old in love with football.
Robins said: “He's had a second little boy. He went back at the end of last weekend. We had spoken about that because his fiancée was due last week but there was no sign of baby. I'd said if there was any sign to just stay over there because I was quite happy for him to come back on the Thursday or even Friday to train so he had some handling before he came into the game. Fortunately he was back on Thursday night after his fiancée gave birth on Wednesday. It's fantastic. I'm really pleased for them and I think he’s a happy man.”
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