Stoke City have an opportunity to inflict more misery on Chelsea

Stoke City have an opportunity to inflict more misery on Chelsea when they take on the blues at the Britannia stadium on Saturday. It was only recently that the team knocked out the League Cup champions from the competition at the third round on penalties.

The match had finished as a 1-1 draw, but Chelsea had the better of opportunities through the 120 minutes. If there was a repeat of the same, Jose Mourinho will have faith that his team will come out victorious. The Chelsea manager will not be in the dugout to witness the action since he will serve his one-match stadium ban.

After the recent 2-1 victory over Dynamo Kiev a few days ago, Chelsea will be looking to make it two wins on the bounce. This will be extremely important for a team that has been woefully short of confidence since pre-season. The blues have already suffered six defeats in the league while managing to win only three in return. As a result, they sit near the drop zone with even the talk of qualifying for the Champions League next season fading away. Mourinho’s team have struggled to score goals this season and it is one of the main reasons behind bookmakers backing this to be a low scoring game.

Diego Costa has scored only a handful of goals in all competitions this season. His goal drought stretches to almost 450 minutes and it is one of the worst amongst the Premier League strikers. This poor form sees him backed at only 31/20 in the odds. The odds of scoring in a Chelsea victory is 11/4. There is still opportunity for Chelsea to rise rapidly in the league table, but they must get the crucial victory sooner rather than later. The blues could potentially be close to the top half of the table by the end of this weekend.