Saturday 5 December 2015 18:14, UK
Mark Hughes praised his "exceptional" Stoke City side after an impressive 2-0 victory over high-flying Manchester City at the Britannia Stadium.
Marko Arnautovic scored twice but it was the creative flair of Xherdan Shaqiri, who created both of the goals, who sparkled on a blustery afternoon.
"On the day we were exceptional," former Manchester City boss Hughes said post-match.
"We had a game plan as we always do, We knew what we needed to do well. You can talk about tactics but the guys need to go out there and execute them and that is what we did.
"We had a number of chances. In terms of clear-cut chances we were way ahead of City on the day and we could have easily made it embarrassing if I'm honest, but I'm happy with two goals."
It was a memorable day for the enigmatic Arnautovic, who would have claimed a four-goal haul in the first period had his header hit the other side of the net and his one-on-one hat-trick chance not struck the post.
The Austrian has not always reached such heights during his time at Stoke. He spent the post-match celebrations arguing with City's players rather than basking in the glory, and Hughes challenged him to find some consistency.
"He is a big personality," Hughes admitted.
"He is a great guy, someone who came to the club having been undervalued at other clubs. What he has had this year is a really good start to his season compared to other seasons when he started slowly.
"The test for him is he needs to keep going from now until the end of the season."
