Stoke City 2-2 Manchester United; Mkhitaryan should only play centrally and other talking points

#2. The Potters are making "Can he do it on a cold, windy day in Stoke?" real again

The Premier League archetype, this.

When anyone wants to revert to the well-worn cliche that the English Premier League is the toughest footballing competition on the planet, they usually revert to the same ol' question - "Can he do it on a cold, windy day in Stoke?" - a reputation that comes from the tough, no-nonsense outfit of air-battle dominating behemoths that Tony Pulis would send out week-in week-out to terrify the likes of Arsenal and company.

For a while last season, and indeed over the past couple of seasons, that has been slipping away - a mix of the confusion Mark Hughes' tactics often brings with it and a slip in quality of the football on show in Stoke-on-Trent.

As Manchester United found out yesterday - and Arsenal have already found out - that reputation may be coming back with a vengeance. The new-look Stoke appear tough, durable, and ready to muck it out in defence while in attack they look like a real threat with genuine quality up-top.

Yesterday, they exploited United's one greatest weakness - defending the flanks - to perfection and constricted the game well enough in midfield to keep their far superior opponents generally quiet.

Keep this up, and walking away with a point from the bet365 - while not making the name of the stadium any less ridiculous - will start looking like quite the achievement.