Stoke begin their Championship season with the visit of Swansea to the Bet365 Stadium on Saturday (15:00 BST). Mark Robins' men began the campaign with an EFL Cup first round win over Oldham last weekend and the 3-1 home win over Derby last season was their third straight opening day win. The Swans bowed out of the EFL Cup at home to Birmingham while they are winless on the opening day of the league season since 2020.
Stoke City have lost just one of their past 15 home league games against Swansea City (W10 D4), going down 2-1 in March 2021; they've won this exact fixture in each of the previous two campaigns. Swansea City beat Stoke City in their last league meeting 2-0 in March; last winning consecutive games against the Potters in the 2020-21 Championship campaign. After losing each of their final four league games last season, Stoke are looking to avoid five successive defeats for the first time since January 2005. Swansea avoided defeat in their final four away league games last season (W2 D2), not since between February and November 2020 have they gone five successive games on the road unbeaten (11 games – W5 D6). Only Gustavo Hamer (12) recorded more assists in the EFL Championship last season than Stoke's Sorba Thomas (11), while he led the league for chances created (90) and expected assists (9.8). [BBC]