Man City have a great squad, there's no denying that. We just have to stay with them over the next few games. They had a dream run of 5/6 games where I could always see them picking up maximum points. They now have three easy (on paper) fixtures left and then life will start to get more difficult for them.

A crucial and testing time for Chelsea and the festive period could be vital in the race for the title. After bad starts to the season, both Manchester teams have put together very good runs of form, and Chelsea are now under real pressure and have some very tricky games ahead. These are the sorts of games that were drawn or even lost last season.

When Chelsea played the Manchester teams away earlier in the season, a point seemed a good result at the time, although now? Now, the fact that Chelsea could have won both of those games if they hadn't backed off seems more crucial.

When Man Utd have been way ahead on points in past seasons, there has been no backing off, and if they're up against a rival, and a win would put them out of sight, they have tended to win, and put themselves 15 points or so clear. Not Chelsea, and that's a possible weakness.

Chelsea have definitely had the tougher fixtures so far this season and have done very well to be in the position they're in, but let's face facts, a couple of draws and a loss in the next several games could be the difference between PL champions and runners up, and Chelsea need to put a string of wins together imo.

As said before, a key could be more rotation, and not just to rest players, but to make preparation by the opposition more difficult. Both Manchester teams have had to change their line ups due to injuries, and that can work in your favour when the opposition aren't prepared for certain players or formations. Man Utd regularly used to bring in fresh players such as Macheda near the end of a season for that very reason.

Will Mourhino dare to go there?

This is going to be a rough week for Chelsea.

Not confident for tonight tbh....

No, I'm not very confident either. To be honest, I'd be satisfied with 8 points from the next four games. That could leave us in 2nd place, but just a point behind Man City with the same number of games. But then Man City start on a run of more difficult games, Everton (a), Arsenal (h) and their game against us at The Bridge of course.
But whichever way you look at it, things have got tougher. Shows how important those dropped points at Sunderland and Newcastle were.

I cannot believe fans are thinking we cannot beat Stoke.

Of course we can! We have a fantastic team, the envy of the league

3 weeks ago we were 8 points ahead above City, the one bad week against teams we should beat might have cost us. Not to mention dropping 4 points against City and United in games we should have won.

Problem is Chelsea has not played well on the road this season. We are only 4-3-1 as supposed to 8-0-0 at home. Stoke put up a great performance against Arsenal but they aren't really in good form. Chelsea needs to make a statement today heading into a tough week and need to keep a hot City team behind us.


I think Chelsea wins 2-1

Two of those draws were in the road at are biggest rivals, and they stole a draw at the death. Hardly poor is it.

Even at our worst, we should be dispatching Stoke, no disrespect

In the game against City we went up 1-0 and has City was down a man. Not only did we get outplayed with 11 men but we allowed Lampard to beat us late. Then the game against United was pretty much won and we wait until the last possible moment to lapse on defense and allowed RVP to draw the game. Games you are suppose to win and don't are what cost you the championship.

Chelsea team v Stoke: Courtois; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry (c), Azpilicueta; Mikel, Matic; Willian, Fabregas, Hazard; Diego Costa.

Oh, I agree, we should win. But Stoke are no push-over, a win tonight and they'll move above Liverpool. A cold, windy night at the Britannia against a tough, gritty team just doesn't fill me with confidence, that's all.

But you're right, we need those 3 points tonight, and a team of Chelsea's quality should be winning these kind of games.

Glad that Oscar's not in this one. A great player but not ideally suited to Stoke away. Can't understand why Ramires is out. At his best, he'd be one of the first names on the team sheet. Ake's good, but lacks experience for what is a very important game with the pressure on.

No Remy either, but Schurrle's on the bench. He comes in for a lot of criticism, and for me I like the way he always goes for goal. Willian needs to do that more often. For £30 million he doesn't make enough goals or score enough goals imo, and 'working hard for the team' is not enough for a £30 million player.

Nice to see Fabregas pushed further forward. These are games where Chelsea miss the creative genius of Mata. He didn't run box to box, but his passing, quick feet, corners, freekicks and goals were world class. Even against tough physical opposition in the middle of winter, he never failed to deliver. Rip Juan

Yes ! That's the start we wanted.

****ing Terry of all people

1-0 Chelsea

What a horrible, dirty nasty team Stoke are so far.

Will a ref ever penalise them for holding in the box?

Dont think itll finish 11 v 11

Bardsley should have gone for that scythe on hazard!

Refs lost it!

They have certainly set their stall out to rough-up Chelsea. Two attempts to take out Willian, then another two on Hazard. It's football Cap'n, but not as we know it.

Red stops a three on one break by getting in the way. Useless.

This needed a good ref, it's going to be an awful game, I just hope none of our players end up in hospital

I would like to be up 2-0 right now

Yes, I would have put money on Costa sliding that one in the corner.

Oh come on, Chelsea don't have a team of saints either.

We all have to play them unfortunately.

Ref ignores a clear second yellow by Bardsley!