Delap: Stoke's no so secret weapon

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• Danny Higginbotham
• Rory Delap

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Stoke City's Danny Higginbotham believes it is very difficult for Premier League defences to nullify Rory Delap's long throw-in.

The Potters were tipped to struggle this term, but Delap's throw-ins have yielded remarkable success for Tony Pulis' men.

Arsenal were the latest team to feel the brunt of Stoke's secret weapon and now seven of their 13 league goals this term have been created by Delap.

Higginbotham is pleased he does not have to play against Stoke as he thinks the long throw-ins would trouble some of the best defenders in the world.

Difficult

"You try and put yourself on the other side and think 'how would you think how would you defend against it?' and it's something that's very difficult," he told Sky Sports News.

"I'm sure some of the greatest defenders in the world would have difficulty on how to cope with it.

"I've seen situations this year with goalkeepers where some have tried to come for it and it's not worked, some have stayed on their line and it's not worked.

"It's a difficult one but it's something that gives an added bonus."

More success on the road

Stoke's 2-1 success over The Gunners lifted the team into 12th in the table, but Higginbotham knows they must start picking up more points away from The Britannia if it is to be a successful campaign.

"We've played against the top four on a number of occasions and to get anything you have to have quite a large slice of luck, but I thought Saturday was very different from that. I think we thoroughly deserved it," he continued.

"We do have to try and get some points away from home. Liverpool was a great result. I'll be the first to admit we did have a lot of luck there. Sometimes you have to ride that and we did that successfully.

"We know that if we want to have a successful season that we're going to have to start picking up points away from home as well."