Well Chelsea got knocked out of the Capital One Cup last night thanks to a park-the-bus tactical display from Mark Hughes’ Stoke City side who led for all the second half of the game after Jon Walters had put them 1-0 up before Loic Remy struck in injury time time to tie the game at 1-1 sending it into extra time.

Even though Bardsley was sent off for Stoke at the end of regular time, Chelsea were unable to find the winner against Stoke’s 10 men in extra time meaning that the game went to penalties where Jack Butland was the hero for Mark Hughes as he produced a “worldie” of a save on the last Blues penalty (taken by Eden Hazard) giving Stoke a 5-4 win on penalties and a quarter-final berth sending holders Chelsea out of the competition.

Even though Hazard cost the Blues the game by missing the penalty and Chelsea suffered another loss, in the big picture it was a return to form for the 2015 Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year and the Professional Footballers Association’s player of the year for 2015 as he looked like the player who dominated the Premier League last year. There were some other good performances for the Blues, as Willian again impressed along with Zouma and Remy who replaced Costa as well young Traore who looked lively after coming on for Ramires. Costa’s rib injury is another blow for Jose Mourinho but hopefully the Spaniard can return quickly.

As mentioned despite the result being a loss in the big picture it was clear to see that all the Chelsea players are still committed to the cause and definitely are still believers in their manager which is an excellent sign and hopefully this game will be the start of a run of good form for Chelsea which surely is just around the corner.