Both sides struggled to cut out any clear-cut opportunities in the early stages, and Stoke limiting Man Utd to just a few half-chances would have pleased Mark Hughes, who hasn't seen his side keep a clean sheet since 14th December 2013.
Manchester United lost both centre-half's in the first 20 minutes of the game, which forced David Moyes alter his team selection, dropping Michael Carrick into centre-half, Wayne Rooney into central midfield and Danny Welbeck alongside Van Persie up-front.
The blustery conditions at the Britannia did not help the game which lacked fluidity, and Stoke were able to capitalize on this to score their opener.
An innocuous free kick 40-yards from goal was driven by Charlie Adam, taking a wicked deflection off of Michael Carrick to leave David De Gea completely wrong footed as the ball nestled into the left-hand corner.
Having conceded Manchester United immediately injected some urgency into their play which payed dividends just a minute after half-time.
Robin Van Persie, latched onto a delicate ball from Mata, and sweetly curled the ball past the on-rushing Asmir Begovic into the top left corner. Van Persie has now scored in each of his last eight appearances against Stoke.
Many expected Manchester United to use their momentum to go on and win, Adam had different ideas.
A long ball was knocked down by Walters, and after a failed attempt from Marko Arnautovi?, the Scotsman obliged by smashing a tremendous strike from 25 yeards into the top left hand corner. Leaving Manchester United level for just four minutes.
Stoke could have made it three had Oussama Assaidi not spurned the opportunity to pass to Peter Crouch, a chance that Manchester United tried their best to punish.
United laid siege to the Stoke goal with consecutive free-kicks, Rooney striking the bar from an acute angled free-kick and numerous corners, however it was not enough to stop the Potters from moving up to 11th
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