Allardyce: “Play to City level…or lose”
Manager Sam Allardyce insisted: “We have to find that level of consistency in performance and results.
“The big danger for us going into the Stoke game is the hype around beating Manchester City cannot be allowed to have a negative impact on Saturday.
“If we don’t go out and play to that level again, Stoke will beat us.”
Allardyce said: “They will be looking forward to us coming and Mark Hughes will be saying; ‘Come on, let’s take these to task and see if they can cope after that big result’.
“For me the players have a big test as to whether they can sustain the level of success they have achieved up to now.
Diafra Sakho is still in the balance but both James Tomkins and winger Matt Jarvis will be back in the squad but there is still no sign of Argentina striker Mauro Zarate.
The manager said: “I can’t give you the actual medical term at the moment, but he has got a sort of a thigh strain.He is training as part of his rehabilitation, building to come back to training, certainly by next week.”
If Sakho comes through his late fitness test then Allardyce is likely to stick with the same starting line-up that beat Manchester City, with Cheikhou Kouyate and Kevin Nolan staying on the bench.
If he is forced on to the bench, then the manager will choose between captain Nolan and striker Carlton Cole to partner Enner Valencia up front.