Hughes rues errors at back
STOKE’S season will improve provided they cut out their ‘catastrophic errors’ in defence, according to boss Mark Hughes. They host Watford tonight still in the bottom half of the table after a 4-2 defeat by Chelsea when they shipped a quartet of goals for the fifth time this season, and the eighth in 2016. Hughes has injected flair and creativity since taking charge in 2013 from Tony Pulis, but the solidity that was the hallmark of the previous regime has been lost and at the season’s halfway point only the bottom three and Watford themselves have a poorer goal difference. ‘In key moments, defensively, we have to be a lot sounder than we are,’ Hughes said. ‘We’re giving goals up too readily. We had a good result against Watford not too long back. We just need to revisit our thoughts on that one, and clearly take out the catastrophic errors.’ Marko Arnautovic returns from suspension as Stoke seek their first win in six games, yet Jonathan Walters’s knee injury remains a concern. Hughes’s counterpart Walter Mazzarri backs his team to climb out of their current slump once key players return from injury. But Watford could still have nine missing tonight. Juan Zuniga is a major doubt after feeling pain in his ankle during the warm-up against Spurs, and Nordin Amrabat went off with a leg injury in the second half. ‘We are in line with the (aims) this year,’ said Mazzarri. ‘If we get the injured players back and get over this negative moment, we can go higher in the league.’ STOKE CITY WATFORD Kick-off: Referee: IT SAID everything about this game that the biggest talking point was a penalty that never was. ‘If that is a penalty, I am the Pope,’ scoffed Claudio Ranieri of the felling of Adama Traore in the 20th minute of a drab goalless draw. Not everyone was so sure. Robert Huth, the Leicester defender involved in the incident, told Sky Sports at the final whistle: ‘I was waiting for the referee to give it. I’ve not seen it but I think it was a lucky one for us.’ There appeared to be minimal contact as former Barcelona trainee Traore, during a brief purple patch, surged into the area. Had referee Robert Madley seen it the other way, it would have allowed shot-shy Middlesbrough an opportunity to double their number of efforts on target. In restricting their hosts to substitute George Friend’s tame shot early in the second half, Leicester claimed back- to- back