Yes, as I said, the goal was lucky.Stoke missed an open goal (Arnautovic?) and it was a very lucky penalty to be awarded and then to hit Given on the head and roll in.
Last weeks game was dull but I never felt Stoke would score throughout the entire match.
Man City pummelled us last season, but for Stek having the game of his life we would have been steamrollered. If anything Citeh going down to 10 men galvanised them and we appeared to not know whether to stick or twist. It still took a poor header from Holgate to break us down.
I agree the creativity has dipped, but we look a lot more solid. Keane and Pickford have looked very good so far. We just need a bit of magic in attack (we may have that as we have yet to see Sig, Klaassen and Sandro settle in).
The performance was good though, I just checked online to see if my memory was playing tricks on me but it wasn't. We had two shots cleared off the line and the BBC said 'Nevertheless, it was still a deserved victory for the hosts, who move up to second, with only a fine performance from Given denying them further goals.' City was undoubtedly better this year, although it was a pretty low bar last year in all honesty and they might not have pummelled us to quite the same extent had they been a man down for 50 minutes.
I think we looked pretty solid last year to be honest. We had the odd game where we really struggled defensively but we'll have to see whether the same thing happens when we play those teams again this year before we know how much better we are. I'd say the team is currently about the same level as it was last year, stronger in some areas and weaker in others, evening itself out. I think we lack a 'spark' in an attacking sense, as well as a consistent goal threat. Address that in the next week and we could be in for a great season.