Premier League: Stoke City vs Chelsea preview

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November 6th, 2015
Back Premier League: Stoke City vs Chelsea preview

Defending champions Chelsea travel to face Stoke City on Saturday, hoping to avoid a third consecutive Premier League defeat. The Potters have recently defeated Chelsea at the Britannia Stadium, that happened in the Capital One Cup last month. However, recent history does favour Chelsea as the Blues have lost just two of their last 18 meetings against Stoke. The last victory for Stoke against Chelsea was in 2013.

Stoke City needed seven Premier League matches to secure their first win of the season, that happened in September when they defeated Bournemouth 2-1. After that match Stoke went on a winning streak, with successes over Aston Villa and Swansea, but then Watford beat them 2-0. Last time out the Potters snatched a goalless draw at Newcastle, mostly thanks to goalkeeper Jack Butland. Stoke have already beaten Chelsea once this season, 5-4 after a penalty shoot-out in the League Cup. Geoff Cameron should make his return after recovering from a thigh injury.

Chelsea are no less than 14 points behind the current leaders of the Premier League table and are 15th in the league table after losing six of their last eleven games. They have conceded 21 goals so far, that's a huge amount considering that they have let in just 32 in the whole of last season. Last week they were defeated 3-1 at home by Liverpool, marking their worst start to a season since 1978. Some confidence was regained with a 2-1 Champions League victory over Dynamo Kiev this week, but the Blues needed an 83rd minute goal to secure the three points. Jose Mourinho will not be present at the match due to his one-match stadium ban. Thibaut Courtois and Radamel Falcao are unavailable through injury, but Pedro and Branislav Ivanovic are ready to return.

Probable line-ups:

Stoke City: Butland - Johnson, Shawcross, Wollscheid, Pieters - Whelan, Adam - Shaqiri, Bojan, Cameron - Walters

Chelsea: Begovic - Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta - Matic, Fabregas - Willian, Oscar, Hazard - Costa

My prediction: Stoke City to win 1-0.

Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:

Stoke win - 3.80 Draw - 3.60 Chelsea win - 2.05

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