Did Stoke City Make or Break Their Season in Pre-World Cup Stretch?

In late September here at “All Stoked Up”, we took a look at a crucial stretch of matches in October/November for Stoke City — A stretch in which The Potters were going to possibly make or break their season going into the World Cup.

So how did Stoke City fare? Did they get a positive grade on their report card over the past month? Are The Potters in good or poor shape out of the World Cup break? And most importantly, did Stoke City make or break their season with October’s and November’s huge slate of fixtures?

Let’s take a look back at September’s article and answer our own questions, now knowing how Stoke City performed.

Did Stoke City Make or Break Their Season in October/November?

Going back to Stoke City’s first match of October, through the club’s last match before the World Cup, The Potters in total won four, lost six, and drew one match. That was good for 13 of a possible 33 points over that stretch.

At the World Cup break, that puts The Potters at 17th on the table with 25 points. On the surface, that seems really poor. After all, Stoke City is no closer to promotion than they were in late September.

So, the answer to the above questions is Stoke City broke their season, right? Maybe think again though, as Stoke City actually may have not broken their promotion hopes. And on the other hand, they may have not helped them either.

If you dig deeper and look at the numbers closer, Stoke City didn’t necessarily kill their promotion aspirations or give themselves an easier path to promotion in the second half of the season.

The Potters merely treaded water in October and November. Stoke City basically did enough to not lose promotion hopes, but also not help themselves at the same time. This can be seen with their position on the table.

Where Does This Put Stoke City Now?

25 points still puts Stoke City only 6 or 7 points out of a top 6 spot on the table. Now, on the downside of things, Stoke City at 25 points still aren’t clear from relegation either — The Potters as of right now, sit only 2 points above the relegation zone.

With that, Stoke City could see a wide variety of outcomes in the second half of the season. The only known right now is that Stoke City might have severely hurt their chances at the first or second positions on the table.

But even with a top spot on the Championship table off the table (no pun intended), Stoke City still have a shot at gaining promotion this season. Therefore, their last 11 game stretch can be seen as a mixed bag of results.

Stoke City’s October and November results neither broke their season yet, or put them in promotion position out of the break. It’ll now be on their second half of the season to decide their 2022-2023 season’s fate.