Before the unlucky 5-4 defeat on penalties to Stoke City a week or so ago Chelsea had a pretty damn impressive record vs the Potters, winning an awesome 14 games out of 17 in all competitions with 2 ties and just the one solitary loss. So to lose to Stoke was a surprise given that playing history to say the very least.
From a Stoke point of view and a matter which should help to strengthen Chelsea’s confidence levels is that Mark Hughes’ side have only won a mere single game of their most recent 5 home Premier League games (W1 D1 L3) at the Britannia Stadium.
As a bit of a downer for Chelsea however is the fact that they have won only two of their last 10 away matches in all competitions (W2 D3 L5) with one of those draws being the 1-1 tie which went on to be the 5-4 penalty loss to the Potters.
Players that are hot coming in the game naturally starts with that Brazilian magician Willian, who has truly come to the fore this season as not only Chelsea’s best player and top scorer but also he has become one of the League’s top dead-ball specialists – firing in an unbelievable 5 free-kick goals already this season. Another Blue who looks good for this game is French striker Loic Remy who has scored 3 goals in his past 3 Premier League appearances against Stoke City. So we can look to these men to provide the cutting edge at the Britannia if recent history is anything to go by.
Of course we have to come to the Chelsea defense which has undoubtedly been the club’s achilles heel this campaign as only Sunderland have permitted more shots on target against them (69) in the Premier League this season than Chelsea with the Blues allowing a shocking 63 shots on target against them.
The star of Stoke City’s season has clearly been the emerging star, Jack Butland who has made more saves than any other goalkeeper in the Premier League this season (46). Let’s hope he has an off day as Jose Mourinho has already suffered defeat in six league games in 2015-16; he’s never lost seven games in a single league season as a manager.
We predict a real turn in fortunes for the Blues and a 3-1 win in the tough late game on Saturday at the Britannia as we saw enough on Wednesday to be convinced that Jose is turning this season around.