Preview
Chelsea vs Stoke Betting Tips
Saturday, 31/12/2016
Stamford Bridge
Chelsea are only a win away to equal the 13 match winning streak record set by Arsenal in 2001/02 ahead of their New Year’s Eve clash with Stoke City. Chelsea’s 2-0 victory over Bournemouth stretched their hot streak to 12 consecutive league wins and retained their six point lead at the top. No matter how ignorant Antonio Conte remains about the milestone, the Chelsea boss would not want an interruption in his side’s romping towards the Premier League title.
Mark Hughes’s Stoke City have only three days to recover from their 4-1 thrashing at Anfield before they hit the road again. The Potters might deem themselves unlucky having to face Liverpool and Chelsea away from home in a span of four days but they need to shrug off all the fatigue and frustrations to stop the surging Blues. Stoke slipped two places down to 13th following their loss at Anfield and a recap of Tuesday’s results this weekend would send them further down the pile.
TEAM NEWS
- Chelsea
Diego Costa and N’Golo Kante are back from suspension. Pedro will be out for picking up his fifth yellow of the season last match.
Injuries: John Terry(glute), John Obi Mikel(muscle)
Suspension: Pedro(1 Match)
- Stoke City
Xherdan Shaqiri and Ibrahim Affellay might be included in the starting lineup while Marc Muniesa remains a doubt. Marko Arnautovic will serve the final match of his three match suspension.
Injuries: Jack Butland(ankle), Geoff Cameron(knee), Stephen Ireland(broken leg)
Doubts: Marc Muniesa(knee), Phil Bardsley(knee)
Suspension: Marko Arnautovic(3 match suspension, 1 left)
PREDICTION
When will Chelsea’s winning streak end? No one knows but if I were to choose one of their upcoming fixtures I wouldn’t have chosen this one. Stoke are a decent side but Conte’s high-flying Chelsea would be too much to handle for them. Stoke had conceded seven goals in their visits to Arsenal and Liverpool. Can they neutralize the threat of Chelsea’s menacing forward line? Probably not!
RECENT FORM
- Chelsea(1st in the league, last 5 matches in all competitions)
3-0(Home, Bournemouth)1-0(Away, Crystal Palace)1-0(Away, Sunderland)1-0(Home, West Brom)3-1(Away, Manchester City)
- Stoke City(13th in the league, last 5 matches in all competitions)
1-4(Away, Liverpool)2-2(Home, Leicester)0-0(Home, Southampton)1-3(Away, Arsenal)2-0(Home, Burnley)
HEAD TO HEAD
Total Played | Chelsea wins | Stoke wins | Draws |
97 | 45 | 30 | 22 |
LAST MEETING
5 March, 2016
Stamford Bridge
Premier League
Chelsea 1-Stoke 1
INTERESTING FACTS
- Chelsea last 20 home games against teams below them-16 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses, scored 2.2 goals/game, conceded 0.6 goals/game
- Stoke last 20 away games against teams away them-2 wins, 5 draws, 13 losses, scored 0.6 goals/game, conceded 2 goals/game
- Chelsea didn’t win either game against Stoke City last season (D1 L1), the first time they had failed to beat them either home or away in a league campaign since 1974/75.
- The Potters are winless in 11 league visits to Chelsea, last winning there 1-0 in April 1974.
- Stoke have scored just three times in eight visits to Stamford Bridge, with goals from Rory Delap, Charlie Adam and Mame Biram Diouf.
- Eden Hazard scored and assisted in Chelsea’s last Premier League win over Stoke (2-1 in April 2015).
- Chelsea haven’t lost their final league game of a calendar year since 2011 (1-3 at home to Aston Villa).
- Stoke City have ended the last two calendar years with a league victory – 2-0 v West Brom in 2014 and 4-3 at Everton in 2015.
- Chelsea are on a Premier League winning run of 12 games – only one team has won more games consecutively in the history of the competition (Arsenal – 14 between February and August 2002).
- With a win over Stoke, the Blues would join Arsenal in winning the most games consecutively in a single season, with 13 of those 14 wins for Arsenal coming in the 2001/02 season.
- Mark Hughes has never won at Stamford Bridge as a manager in the Premier League, drawing two and losing eight times in 10 previous visits.
- Marcos Alonso has now ended on the winning side in each of his last 16 Premier League starts (four for Sunderland, 12 for Chelsea) – only one player has gone on a longer run in Premier League history, with Arjen Robben winning 20 games in a row between December 2004 and January 2006.
- This is the first time Stoke have played a side top of the Premier League since December 2015, when they faced Manchester City and won 2-0.