Joe Allen tipped former club Swansea to start climbing the Premier League table in the near future despite setting up two of Stoke's goals in a 3-1 win at the bet365 Stadium.
Striker Wilfried Bony ended his drought with a brace against the side for whom he scored 25 goals in 54 top-flight games, with both laid on by Allen.
The Potters' other strike, which arrived after Wayne Routledge's equaliser, came via an Alfie Mawson own-goal.
Allen told Sky Sports 1: "I thought they [Swansea] were very good. Even at 3-1 I thought they still looked a threat.
"We didn't quite wrap the game up as well as we could have -- the general performance you can see they're a really good team and I'm confident they'll do fine this year and I'm hopeful they'll be able to turn things round like we have and climb up the table.''
Stoke picked up just three points from their first seven league games but have now won three in a row to climb to 12th, and manager Mark Hughes urged his side to continue their momentum to get into the top half as quickly as possible.
"I thought our attacking play was excellent -- we had any number of chances that could have gone in for us but we got the job done,'' Hughes said.
"It was important to get that third win -- it's very difficult in the Premier League for teams at our level.
"We've been able to do it three times now and that's enabled us to get in a position we feel comfortable in because clearly we don't want to be in the bottom half -- we don't feel we're a bottom half team.
"We're pushing to get back into the top 10 like we have been the last three years.''