Stoke will come out fighting to cure travel sickness

There are two strains of second-season syndrome. In the more contagious variant, players believe they have cracked it in the Premier League and, perhaps even sub-consciously, ease up. In the type Tony Pulis believes is affecting Stoke City, a change in the way other teams perceive them causes the condition.

Pulis, whose team visit Everton today, is convinced that Stoke, far from equating last season's 12th place with a comfort zone, have been victims of their own relative success. "Chelsea played their best team against us; Manchester United put out very nearly their strongest side," he said. "I don't think they would have done so if we had just got into the Premier League, especially with European games a few days later."

Among Stoke's victims after arriving from the Championship with their relentless aggression, team spirit and long-throw barrage were Arsenal, Aston Villa and Tottenham, while they drew twice with Liverpool and came tantalisingly close to winning at Chelsea.

"Sir Alex [Ferguson] picking the team he did last week, knowing United had Wolfsburg coming up, was a testament to what teams now think of us," Pulis said. "They're looking at us a bit differently. So it'll be tougher this year. I don't think we'll get anyone coming [to the Britannia Stadium] with any complacency."

Premier League history offers several examples of teams who prospered after being promoted, only to plummet 12 months later. Reading are the most recent case, while the same fate befell Ipswich following a fifth-place finish in 2001 and, before them, Middlesbrough after they had celebrated a mid-table position by buying Fabrizio Ravanelli.

The pragmatic Pulis will not allow anyone at Stoke to get carried away by their status. He insists his players "don't need firing up" – and if they do fall below the standards he has set, the jovial demeanour can give way to something altogether darker. Liam Lawrence, who is in Ireland's squad for their crucial qualifier with Italy on Saturday, described Pulis as "frothing" after the 2-0 defeat by United. Pulis, asked if it was the "angriest" he had been, replied with a chuckle: "I get angry every week."

There was, however, something out of character about Stoke's display that irked him. "We didn't throw any punches and shadow-boxed for 90 minutes. You don't win fights when you do that. It hasn't happened to us at home before. I just don't know what it was, apart from the fact that we were playing a great team."

Stoke's detractors will smile knowingly at the Welshman's use of boxing analogies. He cares only about whether there is a "reaction" from his team at Goodison Park. "When I looked at the fixtures I thought it was a really tough start. Sometimes you're lucky. Wolves don't play any of the 'Big Four' until next month. In our first 10 we've already had United, Chelsea and Liverpool, and after Everton our next away game is Tottenham."

David Moyes' side won impressively in Belarus in the Europa League on Thursday, but if Pulis hopes for signs of travel-weariness, he does not expect it. "The disappointing thing is that Minsk is only a two-hour time difference. We were hoping for six or seven," he joked. "But they're well-versed at playing in Europe. I'm sure Martin [O'Neill] found it difficult at Aston Villa last season, what with going away, then coming back and having to play so many matches. I think Everton have been involved in playing abroad quite a bit and Moysey knows how to sort it out."

Everton are not pilloried for a long-ball approach the way Stoke are, yet Pulis regards them as "different to the other teams near the top". Where United and Chelsea "move the ball through the pitch", they "mix it up" with delivery from back to front. "They also get [Tim] Cahill and [Marouane] Fellaini joining in from midfield, and those two have great goalscoring records," he added with a mix of admiration and trepidation.

Two wins in 22 top-flight away fixtures suggests room for improvement if second-season syndrome is not to be an issue. "I honestly think we have done well away," Pulis said. "We were the better team at Bolton and Birmingham, and played better in losing 4-0 at Liverpool than when we drew 0-0 the previous year."