Plymouth vs Stoke prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2023-12-01 15:00.
A third consecutive away loss in Championship football, courtesy of a single second-half goal at Coventry City, has kept Plymouth Argyle uncomfortably close to the relegation zone, albeit with plenty of time to steady themselves ahead of the halfway point of the season. Manager Steven Schumacher was “disappointed” with the controversial refereeing decision to award the Coventry winner, suggesting that crucial calls had been going against them “too often”.
It’ll be a relief to quickly head back to Home Park, where the Pilgrims have collected all five of their Championship victories this campaign (D1, L3). Schumacher believes his team can be “a match for anyone” on their own patch when they “get it right”, and wins at home to mid-table sides Sunderland (2-0), Norwich City (6-2) and Blackburn Rovers (3-0) suggest that they can indeed take three points from their first meeting with Stoke City since 2007.
Stoke have flirted on and off with relegation since their drop back down from the Premier League in 2018 and are doing so again this term, having registered their lowest points haul from their first 18 matches (21; W6, D3, L9) in four seasons. Manager Alex Neil also took his midweek frustrations out on the refereeing, pointing to what he believed were three game-changing errors that contributed to their 4-2 defeat at Queens Park Rangers.
With that result, they became the first visitors of the Championship campaign to lose away to the west Londoners, although that was just their second loss on the road in the league across six games (W2, D2, L2). Overall though, the Potters have lost 60% of their competitive encounters on their travels in 2023/24 (W2, D2, L6), in no small part due to conceding the opener on an unacceptable eight occasions.
Players to watch: Morgan Whittaker has become a crowd favourite and has scored in each of Plymouth’s last three home games, while Ryan Mmaee made an impressive return to Stoke’s starting line-up at QPR. He has now netted in three of his last four competitive appearances of at least 45 minutes, showing how thoroughly he deserves significant time on the pitch in Devon.
Hot stat: The pre-match favourite has won just three of Plymouth’s nine home fixtures this league season (D1, L5).