Three things we learnt: Stoke City 3-1 Swansea City

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Stoke’s faith in Hughes repaid

Both Stoke and Swansea had made poor starts to the new Premier League season but it is noticeable the contrasting approaches that each club made to solving their early season crisis’.

Whilst Francesco Guidolin was sacked and replaced by Bob Bradley in South Wales, The Potters chose to keep faith with Mark Hughes despite suffering a deluge of heavy defeats.

In short, Stoke chairman Peter Coates kept calm and his demonstrated his trust in his manager whilst his counterpart Huw Jenkins took a more ruthless approach.

It is significant that, after only picking up one point in his first five matches, Mark Hughes has managed to turn the corner with his Stoke team who are now five games unbeaten and have won all of their last three matches.

Whilst Stoke’s faith in their manager has seen the club rise up to the relative safety of mid-table, Bradley’s arrival has failed to spark Swansea into form.

Sacking a manager is no guarantee of immediate change and success, as they are currently discovering in South Wales, and it is refreshing to see a club, in the form of Stoke, back their manager during a tough period and The Potters are now reaping the rewards.