REUTERS – Team work will take Stoke City to new heights, winger Xherdan Shaqiri has said after Monday’s morale-boosting 4-3 Premier League win over Everton.

Despite scoring four goals on Monday, Stoke, who are ninth in the table, are one of the low-scoring teams in the league with 20 goals.

“I think you never know what can happen in the Premier League this season. You see that some teams are really down, some teams are really up, like Leicester (City),” Shaqiri told British media.

“So anything can happen in this league… but we must work hard like we did at Everton and we must play well. If we do that, then we can see where we finish.

“For us it’s important to play as a team. We can only win as a team and we showed that at Everton. If we keep going like that anything can happen.”

The Potters have dropped 10 points against teams in the bottom half of the league and Shaqiri has called on his team mates to change their mentality when they take on teams lower down the table.

“I don’t know if there’s one specific reason. Perhaps it’s mentality, but I do know even the smaller teams are good now. They have new players, good players and every game is tough in the Premier League,” Shaqiri said.

“I always thought it (the Premier League) would be ideal for me. As a player I sometimes have space, inside and outside, and I really enjoy it.”

Stoke begin the new year with a game against 13th-placed West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)