Marko Arnautovic scored a brace early in the first half and Stoke City passed up further chances to punish Manchester City in a 2-0 victory.
A quickfire first-half brace from Marko Arnautovic led Stoke City to a well-deserved 2-0 victory over an abject Manchester City at the Britannia Stadium.
Stoke boss Mark Hughes dropped Jon Walters to the bench, choosing to combine the lavish creative gifts of Ibrahim Afellay, Bojan Krkic and Xherdan Shaqiri with Arnautovic – a switch that paid off to devastating effect.
Shaqiri supplied a pair of wonderful assists for Arnautovic to establish a decisive lead after 15 minutes as City's defense, again without injured captain Vincent Kompany, reprised the horrors of their thrashings to Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool this season.