Stoke City captain Ryan Shawcross says they must not be intimidated by a difficult new season start.
Reacting to a fixture list which sees Stoke kick off their 2017/18 campaign with Everton (a), Arsenal (h), West Brom (a), Man United (h), Newcastle (a) and Chelsea (h), Shawcross says they must embrace the challenge.
"Everton away is never an easy one for any side, but we have been there in the past, competed with them and beaten them, so we can go there with real belief this time around too.
"We struggled during the opening few weeks of the season last time (one point from the first 15), especially in the matches against the bigger sides, but we have a real opportunity to put that right this season. We have three mouth-watering games at home against Arsenal, United and Chelsea, which we will be right up for, and hopefully we will be able to make a real statement of intent in those matches."
Source: tribalfootball.com