The close games Stoke were winning during the first quarter of the season have now turned into defeats.
They were decent in possession and worth a point at Watford but got nothing and again looked relatively blunt in attack.
Stoke face a couple of big home games between Christmas and New Year as they try to enter 2026 in the Championship's top six but to do that they'll have to solve three immediate problems.
Firstly, they'll have to deal with what the manager Mark Robins called a changed dynamic, created by the absence of Junior Tchamadeu.