Stoke City 1-0 Chelsea: Blues Doesn’t Miss Jose and Other Talking Points

Chelsea slumped to their 7^th defeat from twelve games in the Premier League, the first time that had happened to a Premier League Champion. Chelsea were without Jose Mourinho who was serving a one-match ban but it didn’t help the team as they lost due to an acrobatic goal by Marko Arnautovic. Stoke had a plan and that involved sucking up the pressure and hitting them on the break, Stoke had needed a win at home and they got it. Chelsea did try to get back in the game and even though they dominated the game, they couldn’t get the equaliser, what next for Jose Mourinho?

Chelsea doesn’t miss Mourinho

To be fair, Chelsea played much better with Mourinho being away from the team. Chelsea were bright, inventive and should have scored more than one goal, rather than not score at all. They hit the post and were denied a couple of times by Jack Butland. Chelsea should be able to get over their slump if they keep playing like this but was this Jose’s plans being worked out or the assistants who took over for this game?

Costa needs to concentrate on football

Much has been said about Diego Costa’s behaviour on the field and the Spaniard was at it again, it was however expected since Stoke had a game plan for Chelsea and Costa. The striker was caught out in many tussles between him and the Stoke City defence, especially Ryan Shawcross, at one time gesturing Shawcross actually had a lot of body odour. If only Costa paid more attention to his game as a striker and not always as a stinker, he could actually score a few more goals this season.

Butland was exceptional, once again

The 22-year-old has grown from strength to strength this season, despite having to fill in the big shoes of Asmir Begovic; the English goalkeeper was at his best against Chelsea. Butland might have been lucky that he did not concede a penalty late in the game when Remy decided to stay honest and not initiate contact in the penalty box but the goalkeeper was Stoke’s best player as he kept them in the game in the first half. If Butland keeps playing like this, he could soon replace Joe Hart as the English number 1.

Rahman had a tough game against Shaqiri

Chelsea sold Filipe Luis and brought in the highly rated Baba Rahman from Augsburg in the Bundesliga, the defender got a chance to show what he is capable of doing on the pitch but had a torrid time taking on Xherdan Shaqiri. The Swiss player was just too much for Baba and the Chelsea defender was yanked out at the 70th-minute mark. Jose had stated that Baba needed time to adjust to the league but he wouldn’t be going up against someone like Shaqiri on a regular basis, a tough lesson for the young left-back but he will learn from this.

The Stoke City game plan worked

Stoke City’s plan wasn’t just to defend and then hit Chelsea with a counter, they also had targeted Baba Rahman and that worked a treat for Xherdan Shaqiri. The team also had a plan to frustrate Diego Costa and were brilliant in defence. This wasn’t a Stoke that Mark Hughes had made, this felt like the Tony Pulis Stoke City and that isn’t the worst thing in the world. Stoke were effective, they got the goal, sucked up the pressure and defender well, sometimes you don’t have to be attractive, to get the job done.