Talking points as Stoke City make it three wins out of three by beating Southampton with 10 men
05:00, 24 Aug 2025
Peter Smith
Peter has reported on Stoke City for The Sentinel and StokeonTrentLive since 2013, following the club in the Premier League, Championship and beyond, including trips to Singapore, Germany, France, Croatia and Switzerland. He has been watching Stoke since 1990.
Mark Robins
Verdict... Stoke boss Mark Robins
Stoke City ran out 2-1 winners in a dramatic afternoon at Southampton when Lewis Baker and Sorba Thomas scored the goals, Viktor Johansson pulled off a remarkable save and Divin Mubama was sent off.
It makes it a maximum nine-point haul so far for Mark Robins as he starts his first full season as manager with a new-look squad which is playing like a very different team.
Stoke may have rode their luck at times, but overall it was a sound away display by a team who look a completely different prospect to the one that narrowly avoided relegation last term.
Here are the talking points from St Mary’s...
Three wins out of three
If this was Stoke’s biggest test so far they showed they were more than a match for a Southampton team who are widely expected to be one of the main challenges for promotion.
Yes, Southampton had their moments, hitting the post twice and forcing a superb save from Viktor Johansson, but Stoke gave as good as they got and were a consistent threat. Million Manhoef and Sorba Thomas are quick, skilful and must be a nightmare to defend against.
That’s three wins out of three to start a league season for the first time since 1998/99, although we don’t want to mention that season too often.
It’s a new-look side, or certainly a side with a lot of new elements that have hauled up standards and look like they are loving playing for the club at the moment. Who knows how long it will last, but enjoy it for as long as it does.
Johansson pulls out the stops
Two weeks in a row, Viktor Johansson has produced a moment of instinctive brilliance. There will barely have been anyone in the stadium who didn’t think Taylor Harwood-Bellis had scored when Johansson somehow kept out his header from a Ryan Fraser corner.
There was plenty of talk when he was shining last winter that there would be transfer vultures circling this summer, and keeping him is as key a bit of business as the nine signings Stoke have made so far.
Robins said: “He was really good, I thought he was brilliant in every element of his game. I thought he was outstanding, he is outstanding. Well done to him, well done to everyone.
“You’ve got to try to keep your best players and he’s certainly one of those, one of the best in the division. I’m going to shut up now because there’s still a few days left in the window.
“To a man they should be proud of their performance but we’ll pick the bones out of it like we always do and make sure we improve on certain aspects. But to play for half an hour with a man down is no mean feat and they deserve enormous credit.”
Divin’ Divin?
It was a brilliant move, first of all. Manhoef did excellently to break and then slide that pass through for Mubama to take a touch. Robins said he was going to talk to Mubama about what happened next and whether he might have been able to stay on his feet to get the finish.
It was a brave call from referee Josh Smith to decide it was a dive. At the very least, photos show that Mubama’s boot was caught by Gavin Bazunu’s midriff, snagging the keeper’s shirt.
It looked like Smith had forgotten he’d already booked him and he took a while to pull out a red card. If he had remembered that at the time, it feels like he probably might have just awarded a goal-kick and perhaps had a quiet word with Mubama.
Anyway, thus ends a 58-game Stoke run without a red card in the league. That’s the longest of the modern era.
Mubama misses a Carabao Cup tie with Bradford in mid-week because red cards are not competition specific, unlike accumulated yellow cards.
United front
There is good competition in the Stoke squad too, with most positions having players biting at starters’ heels hoping for a chance to stake their claim.
Robins kept the same team here that had won at Sheffield Wednesday, but Ashley Phillips, Eric Bocat, Ben Pearson, Jamie Donley and Robert Bozenik and, soon, Lamine Cisse, Maksym Talovierov and Steven Nzonzi will get their moment and try to make sure they don’t give the shirt back.
But the current starters are playing like they won’t give up their place easily.
Stoke looked confident when they came out for kick-off and buoyant by full-time. That is infectious. Stoke supporters had a brilliant afternoon and they celebrated together at the finish.
Robins said: “Our club motto: vis unita fortior. It’s huge. You can see it, you can feel it. Let’s just keep it going.”
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