We´re not going there to take pictures – Hughes focused on West Ham win

Mark Hughes says the attraction of playing at a new ground will not detract from Stoke City’s focus of extending their unbeaten sequence.

Stoke visit West Ham’s London Stadium on Saturday, aiming for victory that will stretch their undefeated run to six matches.

That form represents an impressive turnaround for Hughes’ side who, prior to that, won just once in their opening seven games – in the EFL Cup against Stevenage.

A trip to West Ham – who have struggled in their new home – is next up, but Hughes insists the unfamiliar surroundings will not be of any relevance.

“It’s not a case for us going there and taking pictures of new stands or whatever, we’re going there to do a job and that’s our focus,” he told Stoke’s official website. 

“We’ve had a run now of five games where we have been in a position where we feel our capabilities should be and we will be looking to maintain that.

“We’ll look forward to it, that’s been the case with every game we have played in recent weeks because we’re playing some good stuff and playing with confidence. 

“It won’t be easy, West Ham at home have sorted their act out a little bit, they struggled initially but have had a couple of good results there themselves. 

“If you’re going to go to difficult places, which theirs is a little bit of an unknown clearly with their new stadium, then you have to make sure you go there with confidence and that’s what we are at the moment.

“We’ve always gone there with a good game plan and with the desire of getting a positive result, we’ve never gone there with the idea of just shutting up shop and hoping for the best. 

“We have always felt that we’ve had a good opportunity to win there and that’s no different going into the weekend.”