Stoke City vs Chelsea
Dec 7, 2013 at 3pm (UK)
Britannia Stadium
An inform Chelsea side continue their away travels as they take on a struggling Stoke City side on Saturday. Jose Mourinho’s men, inspired by Eden Hazard won a thriller of a match against Sunderland by a 4-3 margin, now look to topple Stoke at the Britannia. Chelsea will be boosted by the fact that they have won eight of the 10 Premier League clashes between the sides, with the other two ending all square.
The Potters are yet to pick up three points against Chelsea since a League Cup clash in 1995 and are without a triumph in the league since 1975. Mark Hughes, after taking over in the summer, has imposed his style on the Potters, retracting away from the much professed physical style of Toney Pulis’, to a more possession based approach. Hughes would surely want these strong displays into wins, with Stoke’s current run of form can be believed as either 1 defeat in 5 games or 1 win in 5 games. Sometimes stats do hurt, don’t they?
Last time when Stoke took on Chelsea, they were given a hammering, as Jonathan Walters scored two own goals and missed a penalty in a 4-0 home defeat. Their Bosnian Goalkeeper Asmir Begovic, too needs to have a great game as he will be up against the dreaded cannons from the likes of Hazrad, Malta and Torres up in opposite colors.
Team News:
Chelsea:
According to the team news provided by Jose Mourinho, quoted by the club’s official website, Eto’o and Oscar are back with the squad from their injuries and should be in contention for a starting berth.Meanwhile David Luiz’s return date is still not confirmed. The left-back role which was covered by Azpilicueta while Cole was injured should see the English International return to his regular place.
‘David Luiz is out, I don’t know when I’ll have him back,’ said Mourinho. ‘[Samuel] Eto’o is fine and back with the group,Oscar is also much better and I have to decide whether to play him or not, but he’s much better.
‘Tomorrow or Wednesday Ashley Cole will play. It’s a position where I have alternatives, I have two players for the same position but it’s logical that I don’t give [Cesar] Azpilicueta four matches without giving Ashley one.’
Stoke City:
For the Potters, Erik Pieters, who was forced to withdraw during the half-time at the Cardiff encounter is a major doubt. It will be interesting to see Mark Hughes’ decision to start Walters or not given his history with Chelsea and the fact that he has just recovered from an injury. Elsewhere Robert Huth and Matthew Etherington who are suffering from knee and back problems respectively will be out of the action.
Possible starting lineups
Stoke City: Begovic; Cameron, Shawcross, Wilson, Pieters; Arnautovic, Nzonzi, Whelan, Adam, Assaidi; Crouch
Chelsea: Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Ramires, Lampard; Willian, Mata, Hazard; Torres
Match Facts:
- Stoke City have scored just three goals in 10 Barclays Premier League games against Chelsea, failing to net in the last four in a row.
- Chelsea have won 10 and lost none of the last 12 meetings with the Potters in all competitions.
- Chelsea inflicted Stoke’s heaviest ever Premier League defeat – 0-7 in April 2010.
- Chelsea will attempt to score 3+ goals in three successive Premier League away games for the first time since August 2009 and only the third time in the competition.
- Eden Hazard has scored three and assisted two more in his last four Premier League games.
- Frank Lampard (145) and John Terry (34) are the only current Chelsea players to have scored more goals for the club in the Premier League than Stoke boss Mark Hughes (25).
Stats compiled from eurosport.yahoo.com
Predictions:
Even though the Potters have been very disciplined at home this campaign, I feel the Chelsea midfield will weave too much arrears in the Stoke defence and easily carve out a 3-0 win at the vociferous Britannia Stadium.