Dean Whitehead believes Stoke are back on track this season after a slow start to the campaign. Saturday's 1-0 win at West Bromwich Albion completed a maximum haul of points from three games in the last seven days.
The midfielder, who scored the winner at the weekend, told the club website: "It's rounded off a tough, tough week for us with our ninth point from three games, and that is brilliant for us.
"We have put a lot of work in this week, with the games that we have had to play, so to come out with wins in each of them tells you a lot about this group of players.
"We are moving up the league now, and we are in a position which we feel we want to be in come the end of the season.
"The target is to get in the top ten and we have put ourselves in a position which reflects the good start to the season we have made.
"We are flying at the moment, confidence is absolutely sky high and rightly so. We look forward to going down to Aston Villa at the weekend and hopefully we can go there and perform equally as well and pick up another three points."
