Aston Villa 1 Benteke 5'
Stoke City 4 Odemwingie 22', Crouch 26', N'Zonzi 42', Cameron 90'
Man of the match Peter Crouch (Stoke City)
BIRMINGHAM // Stoke City striker Peter Crouch was delighted he got on the scoresheet with his ninth goal of the season in a 4-1 victory over Aston Villa and believes his side are improving with every game.
Stoke moved into the top half of the Premier League table following the victory at Villa Park on Sunday.
Christian Benteke gave the home side the lead early on with his 11th goal of the season, but Peter Odemwingie brought Stoke back level as he chested Crouch’s header down and sent it through Brad Guzan’s legs with a close-range finish.
Less than five minutes later, Crouch handed Stoke the lead as he poked the ball home from the centre of the 18-yard box before Steven Nzonzi added their third just before the break and Geoff Cameron netted their fourth strike late on. Man-of-the-match Crouch told Sky Sports 1: “It was very pleasing the way we played, considering we were a goal down.
“At the start of the season we might have collapsed but we showed we’ve definitely improved.
“We passed the ball really well and we controlled pretty much the majority of the game and came out deserved winners.”
Odemwingie, who joined the club in the January transfer window, said he is enjoying his time at Stoke and praised his strike partner Crouch.
“I’m really enjoying it,” he said. “It’s a great group, I’m really happy off the pitch as well and they have received me very nicely.
“I was really happy playing in the same team as Peter. I knew I would get balls off him and the quality he possesses and it makes things easier for us around him.
“I knew he was going to win the ball in the air so I lifted it a bit – believing he was going to win it – and he did, and I kicked the ball and scored.
“That’s what I was planning before coming to Stoke.”
After going down to Benteke’s opener, Odemwingie said he felt confident his teammates would come back after being in a similar situation against Southampton last month.
He added: “We’ve done this before, at Southampton, 1-0 down to an early goal, with the game against West Ham, the same thing.
“We’re really pleased not to drop our heads and we kept going. We got an early equaliser which helped as well. Our overall performance I think was fantastic.”
Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert had no qualms the points were won by the better team.
“We were second best, if truth be known. We started well but it wasn’t good enough. We didn’t deserve to get anything from the game,” he said.
“The goals we lost, were really poor from our side, but we were second best all over the pitch.
“In a strange way when the bigger teams come you are naturally up for it anyway but when you play teams in and about you it becomes reality. These games can be more difficult because of the nature of that, but that wasn’t good enough.”
sports@thenational.ae
Follow our sports coverage on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE