Jose
Mourinho's Chelsea travel to Stoke on Saturday Night Football looking to
stop their Premier League rot.
The champions are 15th after 11 games, and have won just one of their last
five league matches, their worst start to a Premier League campaign
Mourinho will not be able to attend the clash at the Britannia Stadium due
to a ban picked up for comments about match officials following the 3-1
defeat by Southampton last month.
Stoke, who are without a win in their last two league games, beat the Blues
last week on penalties in the Capital One Cup fourth round following a 1-1
draw.
Team news
Geoff Cameron is back in the Stoke squad having missed the last two games
because of a thigh problem.
Fellow defender Marc Muniesa (hamstring) is expected to miss a couple more
weeks and keeper Shay Given (knee) is also out but Phil Bardsley returns
after serving a one-match ban.
Branislav Ivanovic is in contention to return for Chelsea. The right-back
has been absent in recent weeks with a hamstring injury, but is available
again.
Striker Radamel Falcao is out for a few weeks after sustaining an
undisclosed injury in training on Tuesday, while goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois
(knee) remains sidelined.
Opta stats
Mark Hughes' side have won just one of their last five Premier League games
at the Britannia Stadium (W1 D1 L3).
Chelsea have won just two of their last 10 away matches in all competitions
(W2 D3 L5) and one of the draws ended in the shoot out defeat by Stoke.
Loic Remy has scored three goals in three Premier League appearances against
Stoke City.
Only Sunderland (69) have allowed more shots on target against them than
Chelsea (63) in the Premier League this season.
Jack Butland has made more saves than any other goalkeeper in the Premier
League this season (46).
Mourinho has lost six league games already in 2015-16 - he's never lost
seven games in a single league season as a manager.
Chelsea have already conceded more goals this season (22) than they managed
in the whole of 2004-05 (15) and the same number as in the whole of 2005-06
(22).
If Chelsea lose this game, it'll be the first time that they've lost seven
of their opening 12 games in a top-flight season since 1978-79; a season
that they were relegated.
Merson's prediction
This is a weird game. What happens if Chelsea win 5-0 without Mourinho in
the stadium? That would raise some interesting questions. I expect Chelsea
to win this one. It's bound to be a hard game, like most games at the
Britannia are, but you have to remember Stoke got rinsed by Watford two
weeks ago. Chelsea have to score first though.
PAUL PREDICTS: 1-2 (Sky Bet odds 15/2)
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