Stoke City goalkeeper Shay Given says his side knew exactly what to expect from Tottenham on the weekend, but failed to control the visitors as the Potters slumped to yet another loss.
In his 450th Premier League appearance, Given was forced to pick the ball out of his own net on four occasions after Spurs ran riot at the Britannia.
“The bottom line is we lost 4-0 again so it’s hard to take too many positives,” Given said to the Stoke Sentinel.
“We were very much in it in the first half. It was pretty much a 50-50 game that could have gone either way … but in the second half we got opened up again. The goals are very disappointing. It was a very similar scenario to last season.
“The goals were too easy. It was obviously good play from them but we should have made it more difficult.
“It’s getting the balance right of creating a lot of things going forward, but not going gung ho – especially against a team like Tottenham, who are so good on the break.
“Three of their goals were on the counter-attack and we knew that was how they play; we saw how they did it against us last season. We knew what was coming and we didn’t deal with it.
“I don’t know if it’s a matter of changing how we approach games against certain teams. It’s probably too early after the game to say that.
“But we have conceded eight goals against Man City and Tottenham and I know they are two very top teams but that’s not good enough.”
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