Too Late For Chelsea?  (Sky Sports)

Marko Arnautovic’s second-half strike was enough for Stoke to beat Chelsea 1-0 at the Britannia Stadium and add to the Premier League champions’ troubles.

Twelve games into the campaign, Jose Mourinho's men are now just three points above the relegation zone and 14 points behind Manchester United in fourth.

Here are just some of the statistics that highlight how badly things have gone for the Blues so far this season:

- Mourinho has lost seven league games in a campaign for the first time as a manager.

- Chelsea have lost three league games in a row for the first time since October 1999.

- Chelsea haven't kept a clean sheet in any of their last eight Premier League away games.

- The last time Chelsea lost seven of their opening 12 games in the top flight, they were relegated.

- No side in Premier League history has finished in the top five having taken 11 points or fewer from their first 12 games.

"You've only got to look at their form," Jamie Redknapp told Sky Sports afterwards.

"This time last year they hadn't lost a game. This year they've lost seven games. Something is dramatically wrong.

"That can't be right when they won the league by eight points last year and, let's be honest, they absolutely breezed it.

"To be in this situation now is unprecedented. I can't remember a team ever performing like this after winning the title."

It's a long way back but can they do it? Well, here are their remaining Premier League fixtures in 2015:

- Nov 21 - Norwich (h)

- Nov 29 - Tottenham (a)

- Dec 5 - Bournemouth (h)

- Dec 14 - Leicester (a)

- Dec 19 - Sunderland (h)

- Dec 26 - Watford (h)

- Dec 28 - Man Utd (a)

There are opportunities there, but the scale of the problem for Chelsea is highlighted by the fact that they picked up 55 points from the final 26 games of last season.

Even if they can rediscover the form of 2014/15, that would only be sufficient for 66 points this term. It's more than a decade since that was enough for a top-four finish.

As a result, perhaps it's already too late to turn Chelsea's Premier League season around?