Super Eagles striker, Victor Moses posted another superlative performance in Stoke City’s 1-0 win over Newcastle in the Monday night English Premier League tie.
Moses looked consistently dangerous on the left wing leading to his run and cross for Peter Crouch, who rose up above Fabricio Coloccini to win a header and nod past Tim Krul from eight yards
Stoke could have had a second from the spot six minutes later when Paul Dummett appeared to trip Moses in the penalty area, but the referee waved play on.
Arnautovic nearly doubled Stoke’s lead in the 48th minute, and was unlucky not to score on a brilliant effort from 12 yards.
A free kick into the box was badly cleared by Newcastle and fell to Arnautovic, who wasn’t closed down as he hit a powerful volley, but his effort cannoned off the far post.
Stoke nearly scored again in the 62nd minute, with their defense gifting a chance to Moses. Another awful clearance attempt hit the back of a Newcastle player and fell right to the feet of Moses, but Krul came up with a brilliant one-on-one save to keep his team in the game.
A couple of substitutions from both teams livened things up Stephen Ireland was less effective than Charlie Adam for Stoke and Sammy Ameobi offered more than Remy Cabella quite quickly but that simply meant there was little going on, not that Newcastle began to look like scoring.
Newcastle finally generated a big chance in the 84th minute, through Gabriel Obertan and Jack Colback. Obertan beat his man down the right wing and played a square ball that Colback was able to get on the end of, but he went for power instead of placement with an empty net in front of him and smashed a left-footed half-volley off the crossbar.
Ultimately, that was the closest Newcastle came to scoring, and Stoke were able to hold on for all three well-deserved points.