Stoke City boss Mark Hughes says having a consistent XI has been key to their improvement.

The Potters are unbeaten in their last four Premier League games, winning their last two after back-to-back 2-0 wins over Hull City and Sunderland.

Ten players have played in all four of those games, with Phil Bardsley replacing Glen Johnson being the only change from the draws against West Brom and Manchester United.

"It's important because teams that get into a run of form more often than not produce good performances and gain good results," Hughes told the club's official website.

"Thankfully after the opening games of the season we're starting to have that little bit of continuity in selection and that always helps.

"We had difficult fixtures and we didn't acquit ourselves in a couple of them as well as we wanted too but we've now got a good settled team at the moment.

"I think when we have that continuity that I speak of then we're a very good side at this level and we can start to build our season."