After a successful first season in the Premier League, Stoke were looking to establish themselves in the top tier and spent just over £20 million on Diego Arismendi, Danny Collins, Robert Huth, Tuncay and Dean Whitehead.

Stoke began 2010 in fine form going eleven matches unbeaten, which included wins against Fulham, Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth, whilst draws were earned against Liverpool and Manchester City.

[8] Stoke's final match of pre-season was against Spanish side Real Valladolid at the Britannia Stadium where they made a bright start scoring through Abdoulaye Faye after two minutes before Dave Kitson converted a 32nd-minute penalty.

[9] On 14 October 2009 a Stoke City XI lost 1–0 in a friendly against American sister club Austin Aztex at Nantwich Town's Weaver Stadium.

However City soon took control of the match and went in front after 19 minutes through Ryan Shawcross, before a trademark Rory Delap long throw-in was glanced into his own net by defender Stephen Jordan to put Stoke into a 2–0 lead.

The away side improved in the second half but failed to trouble Sorensen and Stoke could have added a third with Dave Kitson hitting the post and Richard Cresswell narrowly shooting wide.

The change in tactics backfired as Liverpool comfortably won the game 4–0 with the goals coming from Fernando Torres, Dirk Kuyt, Glen Johnson and David Ngog.

Stoke suffered an early blow as James Beattie was forced to come off due to injury, meaning that Dave Kitson would have a chance to impress.

Stoke opened the scoring just before half time through a goal mouth scramble which Kitson managed to put past Craig Gordon.

Stoke took the lead early in the second half through the improving Kitson, Wanderers then brought on Ricardo Gardner and Ivan Klasnić to try and rescue a point for the home side.

[20] Stoke then made the trip to White Hart Lane to face Tottenham and were handed a blow before kick off with Thomas Sorensen unable to play meaning that number two Steve Simonsen started in goal.

With the match looking to heading to a goalless draw, Stoke scored via a counter-attack with Glenn Whelan curling a shot past Heurelho Gomes to secure a 1–0 victory.

In the second half Wolves were the dominant side and also scored twice with two identical goals from former City player Jody Craddock as the match ended in a 2–2 draw.

[22] Stoke made the trip to Hull looking for a second consecutive away win; despite a slow start City took the lead through Etherington's powerful drive past Matt Duke.

Hull then equalised through former City player Seyi Olofinjana and Stoke were on the back foot even more when Abdoulaye Faye was sent off for two bookable offences meaning Tuncay who had just come on had to be replaced by Wilkinson in order to fill in the gap in defence.

[23] Paul Hart's relegation threatened side, Portsmouth were next to arrive in Staffordshire and had the chance to take the lead early on after Delap had fouled Aruna Dindane but Kevin-Prince Boateng's penalty was saved by Sorensen.

[29] The boxing day fixture saw Stoke make the trip to Manchester City where Roberto Mancini was taking his first game in charge for the home side.

Sorensen failed to recover from an injury he picked up in the win over York City at the weekend, meaning that Simonsen started and youngster Danzelle St Louis-Hamilton appeared on the bench.

Stoke opened the scoring 13 minutes when Tuncay met Robert Huth's flick on from Etherington's corner and powered the ball beyond Mark Schwarzer from 3-yards to put the hosts into the lead.

A rampant City side didn't have to wait long to double their advantage though as skipper Faye was on hand to tap the ball into an empty net after Etherington's deep corner evaded a packed out 6-yard box.

The Malian international striker latched onto Higginbotham's clever flick on, as the Potters laid siege to the Fulham penalty area, and smashed the ball into the roof of the net with a clinically taken half volley to put Stoke into a 3–0 lead.

With Pompey looking for a vital winner City snatched the win right at the death with Salif Diao scoring his first goal in seven years.

The Potters had to stand firm to soak up some heavy Spurs' pressure, but managed to pull themselves back into the game on the hour mark when Etherington calmly converted from the penalty spot, after David Kitson had been dragged to the ground by Benoît Assou-Ekotto.

Ricardo Fuller then spurned a glorious opportunity to turn the game on its head as he blazed over from 6-yards, before the Londoners ensured all three points would be theirs with little over ten minutes remaining as Croatian international Niko Kranjčar lashed home after Assou-Ekotto teed him up.

[45] There was great excitement for highly awaited derby against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux prior to the match, however the game was a total anti-climax and finished in a drab 0–0 draw.

Neither side were able to find a breakthrough throughout the clash as Delap missed City's best opportunity in the second half whilst the Toffees thought they had won it through Phil Jagielka, only for Howard Webb to chalk it off for an infringement by Victor Anichebe late on.

However Stoke quickly turned the game around with two Rory Delap throws which led to Daniel Parslow putting through his own net and Ricardo Fuller scoring a minute later.

[54] In the replay Man City made a flying start putting the Stoke defence under a considerable amount of pressure with Emmanuel Adebayor, Craig Bellamy and Pablo Zabaleta missing good chances.

Blackpool scored the game's opening goal just before half time when ex-Crewe player David Vaughan was allowed to run and shot to put the Tangerines in front.

It got worse for City as after half-time Billy Clarke one of the smallest players on the pitch managed to out jump a static Stoke defence and but Blackpool 2–0 up.