Potters try to tame Torres

Matty, as he was known by the Hammers fans, is a shoo-in to play on the left of midfield tomorrow.

His signing could be as psychologically important to this season as the permanent acquisition of Shawcross was last season.

We are getting a proven Premiership player, a bloke with 12 years playing experience. A player who featured in the FA Cup Final for West Ham. Not bad for £3 million, if that’s the true figure – certainly it’s a lot less than the crazy money Cardiff were demanding for Joe Ledley, who has never played in the top flight.

Like Shawcross’ signing, it shows clubs in the same division that Stoke City are not here to make up the numbers.

So assuming Matty’s the man for the left and Liam Lawrence gets the nod on the right, who will fill the central midfield slots?

Glenn Whelan seems to have nailed down one of those for now, although I’d personally like to see Soares get a game there, but we’ll have to see who partners him.

Having watched Liverpool at the start of this season, I said that there was no reason why Stoke should fear playing them at Anfield.

We got a 0-0 draw there and although they had a perfectly good goal ruled out, Sorensen could count the save he had to make on the fingers of one hand. That was partly due to some sturdy defending, but also because the Reds left their shooting boots at home that day.

Give them 20 plus shots at goal tomorrow and we could be looking at the scoreline Newcastle suffered last week.

They’ve also proved that they can win games without the likes of Torres, Gerrard and Carragher playing.

They are playing with a belief in their ability that will make them dangerous.

Stoke can’t afford to sit back and watch them weave pretty patterns, but we can’t afford to play offside traps against forwards with the pace of Torres.

Getting a result would be a fantastic achievement. And, as Kevin Keegan would say, I would LOVE IT if that happened.