Stoke v Spurs – history, facts and stats

This evening, we head to Staffordshire for the first time in over two years as we take on Championship side Stoke City in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals (5.30pm kick-off).

Ahead of our meeting at bet365 Stadium, we take a look at the history of the fixture, some of its recent key moments, the statistics behind both sides’ seasons so far, as well as the pre-match view from our opposition.

The history

We have won each of our last five meetings with Stoke City. In a run that started in April, 2016, we began with three back-to-back 4-0 triumphs over the Potters before storming to a 5-1 win against them at Wembley in December, 2017. In our most recent meeting, which came at tonight’s venue - the bet365 Stadium – three goals were exchanged between the two sides in just 11 second-half minutes which saw us just edge the clash 2-1. Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane were on the scoresheet for us that afternoon.

Stoke are certainly a side that Harry has enjoyed facing over the years, especially during our recent winning run. In those five victories, Harry scored nine goals, including a 23-minute hat-trick at White Hart Lane in February, 2017. 

While we have won our last five on the trot against the Potters, we have also lost just two out of our last 13 meetings with them. Six of those have come on the road in Staffordshire and we have been victorious in five of those visits (L1).

However, in the last and only meeting to date between the sides in the League Cup – a third round tie back in September, 2011, at the then Britannia Stadium – we fell to a 7-6 defeat on penalties. The clash had finished 0-0 after extra-time and with the two sides level after five penalties each, we went to sudden death. Defender Ryan Shotton scored Stoke’s eighth but our Academy graduate Massimo Luongo, on his first and only appearance for the Club, was unable to convert his spot-kick as we exited the competition. Harry Kane was an unused substitute for us that night.

Three months later, Harry scored his first-ever goal for us in a 4-0 win over Irish outfit Shamrock Rovers in the Europa League. That night was now Stoke manager Michael O’Neill’s last game as in charge of Rovers before he took charge of the Northern Ireland national team. This evening will be the first competitive meeting between O’Neill and Jose Mourinho.

Jose has faced Stoke 11 times in his career to date and he has only lost three of those meetings. He is unbeaten in his last four matches against the Potters however, like us, in his only meeting with the men in red and white so far in the League Cup, coming during his second spell at Chelsea, his side fell to a penalty shootout defeat. Stoke won 5-4 on penalties in a fourth round tie against the Blues in October, 2015.

At this stage of the competition, our Head Coach's record is very strong. He has reached the last eight of the competition six times in his career to date and on four of those occasions, he has progressed. Each time he has advanced past this stage of the competition, his team has gone on to lift the trophy (2005, 2007, 2015 and 2017). No manager in history has won this competition more times than Jose.

Last five meetings

7 April, 2018 – Stoke 1-2 Spurs – Premier League
9 December, 2017 – Spurs 5-1 Stoke – Premier League
26 February, 2017 – Spurs 4-0  Stoke – Premier League
10  September, 2016 – Stoke 0-4 Spurs  - Premier League
18 April, 2016 – Stoke 0-4 Spurs – Premier League

‘This is an isolated game’

Despite our impressive start to the season, we come into this game on the back of two straight defeats and without a win in three games (Crystal Palace 1-1, Liverpool 1-2 and Leicester 0-2) – a run we haven’t experienced since we endured three losses (Chelsea 1-2, Wolves 2-3 and RB Leipzig 0-3) as well as a 1-1 draw against Burnley in a four-game spell immediately before the first national lockdown, earlier this year.

However, for Jose, with what is resting on this evening’s game – a place in the Carabao Cup semi-finals – this game becomes an isolated one; a tie where form goes out the window.

“It’s isolated. It has nothing to do with the match we just lost, and nothing to do with the match we have to play against Wolves next weekend,” Jose stated. “It’s a cup game, a game where we go to the semi-finals or watch them at home on TV. We have to go with a positive attitude and try to win it.”

Stoke City, meanwhile, come into this game off the back of just one defeat in their last seven games – a run which includes three wins. They have also shown that they are a side that is difficult to break down as they have earned six clean sheets in that spell.

To make it to this stage of the competition, the Potters have dispatched two Premier League teams (Wolves and Aston Villa) and two League One outfits (Blackpool and Gillingham) already. So far, they have scored just three goals in the Carabao Cup, but they are also yet to concede in the competition having kept four straight clean sheets.

And, in the knowledge that they have already claimed top flight scalps in their progress in the cup so far, Stoke boss O’Neill feels their record in the competition should give them plenty of belief going into this tie.

“I suppose it will be an early Christmas present for our supporters if we can win the game,” O’Neill said. “If we can win the game it would lead to another game against a high-calibre team but, having come this far in the competition, we want to make sure we give everything possible on the night to go to the next step.

“The fact that the game is 90 minutes and we don’t have the thought of having to deal with extra-time helps. And what we have already proven is that we’ve beaten two Premier League teams in the four games we’ve played to get to this stage and that gives us belief that we can do the same again.”

Stoke's former Spurs

In Stoke City's ranks there are two former Spurs players. Defender Kevin Wimmer spent two seasons with us between 2015 and 2017 before making the move to Staffordshire. However, the Austrian centre-back has not played for a competitive game for the Potters since January, 2018.

Tashan Oakley-Boothe, meanwhile, a product of our Academy who went on to make one appearance for our first team, has played 19 games for Stoke since joining the Championship side in January, 2020. The midfielder's sole appearance for us was in the League Cup as he came on as a substitute in the final minute of our 1-0 third-round victory over Barnsley in September, 2017.