Chelsea travel to Stoke City on Saturday without their manager, Jose Mourihno, who has been handed a one-match stadium ban
Mourihno hopes his absence won't prevent his players from winning the game and most importantly picking up those valuable 3 points.
Stoke are 14th in the EPL table with 13 points (just below them are Chelsea with 11 points)
Last time these two teams met, Chelsea won the match 2-0 with Terry and Fabregas scoring the goals for The Blues
This time, things don't look good for either team, who will be looking to build some momentum with win before going into the international beak.
CHELSEA
Chelsea come into this game winning just 2 of their last 6 league games
Chelsea suffered back-to-back defeats against Liverpool(1-3) and West Ham(2-1)
Mourihno has already suffered 6 league defeats this season and this matches his worst return to Chelsea
Chelsea do not have a good away record winning just once out of their last 5 games
After being handed a stadium ban, Jose will be hoping his team can motivate themselves and win the game
Jose decided not to appeal his stadium ban and will be relying on his assistants in the ground.
Chelsea are without Courtois and Falcao, though the former has started training and is expected to be back by 1st week of December
Ivanovic is close to making a comeback but doesn't look like he would do so this week
Other than that, all players are fit to play.
Expected 11: Begovic; Zouma, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Matic, Ramiers; Willian, Oscar, Hazard; Costa
STOKE CITY
Stoke come into this game loosing just 1 of their last 6 league games
They won 3 matches on the trot before collecting just 1 point from Newcastle (0-0) and Watford (0-2)
Having beaten Chelsea just last week in the Capital Once Cup, on penalties after the game ended 1-1, Mark Huge's men would be full of confidence and would be looking forward to beating the Boys in Blue again
But then again, Stoke's home form has been poor
They have won just once out of their last 5 home games
Their home record has worried defender Erik Pieters, who hopes to improve their home record by winning against Chelsea.
Butland had an amazing game last weekend where he single-handedly prevented Stoke from loosing
He would be hoping to carry his heroic form into this game, especially to stop Willian, from scoring those amazing free-kicks.
Stoke are without Muniesa, who is suffering from a hamstring injury and Shay Given who has a knee injury.
EXPECTED 11: Butland; Pieters, Wollscheld, Shawcross, Johnson; Adam, Whelan; Arnautovic, Bojan, Shaqiri; Diouf
HEAD-TO-HEAD
Overall
Total: 87
Stoke win: 24
Chelsea win: 44
Draws: 19
At Britannia Stadium
Total: 43
Stoke win: 16
Chelsea win: 18
Draws: 9
Recent Form
STOKE CITY: DWWWLD
CHELSEA: WDLWLL
MATCH FACTS
1) Stoke City have won one of their last five Barclays Premier League matches at the Britannia Stadium (W1 D1 L3).
2) Prior to their recent League Cup penalty shoot-out defeat at Stoke, Chelsea had won 14 and lost just one of the previous 17 meetings in all competitions with them.
3) 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 the Potters.
4) Loic Remy has scored three goals in three league matches against Stoke.
5) Of all reigning BPL champions, this is the worst title defence after 11 matches of a season (11 points)
The second lowest tally was set by Blackburn Rovers (14 points in 1995/96).
6) 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 2005/06.
If you look at the stats, Chelsea should win this game as they have lost just 2 of their last 10 matches against The Potters
Given the fact that The Potters have a bad home form, it doesn't look like they'll win this game
But expecting them to score as Chelsea have had a bad defence so far this season
But stats don't really matter.
Date:Â 7th November, 2015Time:Â 17:30 GMT
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Predicted Scoreline: Stoke City 1-2 Chelsea
Source : DSG
Source: DSG