Jordan’s Aston Villa struggle in defeat

But if we’re focused primarily on getting crosses in for the tall guy up top, doesn’t that take a little bit away from their creativeness and ability to make things happen?

Boss Tim Sherwood admitted he is still searching for his best team and the clock is ticking on his Aston Villa misfits. They have just one point from four home matches and their opponents in their next six fixtures include Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City and Everton.

Sherwood’s Aston Villa side desperately need to put Stoke to the sword today and start to shut up the grumblers.

And, thanks to their increasingly excellent Austrian ace Marko Arnautovic, the Potters celebrated that milestone with a crucial victory.

The game is opening up, but when Stoke win a corner, Guzan easily claims the ball under absolutely no pressure.

The casual way Liverpool strolled through to add a game-deciding third at Anfield last Saturday was the latest example, though Villa can also look back on errors against Palace, Leicester and Sunderland recently and identify careless mistakes and decisions which cost points. Cole certainly still has a lot to give and there are bound to be more than a few Championship managers desperate to bring the three time Premier League victor to their club.

The 23-year-old former Bayern Munich forward, who arrived at the Britannia Stadium for a club-record fee of £12million from Inter in July, could yet be included in the matchday squad to take on Tim Sherwood’s men at Villa Park.

Stoke have now won three straight games in the league and cup after Arnautovic knocked in his second goal of the season off the post 10 minutes after half-time.

Defender Marc Wilson looks likely to be absent for a second successive week as he continues to struggle with a calf injury while Hughes hopes captain Ryan Shawcross will return from back surgery at Swansea after the worldwide break.

Stoke’s gameplan from the first whistle was clear, to capitalise on Villa’s nerves by scoring early, and Charlie Adam almost provided it with a moment of genius.

Villa go close to equalising when an unmarked Richards heads wide.

The change made no real difference in a game where Villa’s midfielders were too static and their wide men failed to supply the big striker Rudy Gestede.