Sooo yea....let's start the holiday season with a win tomorrow! Definitely got a tough schedule playing Monday, Friday, Sunday and Thursday with only 1 match being a home game. Think if we manage to win out these games it'll he a huge confidence booster and set the tone for the rest of the season.
As it stands, City is level with us on points and 1 goal below us in GD This is a must-win if we want to keep the pressure on City to chase us. It's more a must-win if you consider how terrible Stoke have been for us down the years.
Really hope we get a lead in the first half. If we go into halftime equal or down, don't see a way back for us.
Considering we were up two nil last year and still lost.... I agree. This is a tough fixture. Still think we can pull it off though.
we're full strength, i'm optimistic. i think away to stoke is always tricky, and honestly you can always look at this fixture and not be surprised by just about any outcome. in other words, i think we'll win, but won't be surprised if we drop points. it's just one of those fixtures.
Stoke subs: Butland, Huth, Whelan, Wilson, Adam, Diouf, Assaidi. Stoke XI: Begovic; Bardsley, Shawcross, Muniesa, Pieters; Cameron, Nzonzi; Walters, Bojan, Arnautovic; Crouch Chelsea subs: Cech, Filipe Luis, Zouma, Ake, Oscar, Schurrle, Drogba Chelsea XI: Courtois; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Mikel, Matic; Willian, Fabregas, Hazard; Diego Costa. No Remy
or maybe just preparing for the fixture congestion coming up. wanting certain players definitely available for certain games. having a bit more steel in the midfield probably isn't bad for this game.
Our traveling support has been consistently excellent for a long time. I think as the corporates have moved into the Bridge the Chelsea traveling away fans have taken this as a challenge to get noisy early and often. Of course away fans are generally more diehard and often out sing their home fan equivalents. A second would be nice to disrupt the stoke tactical approach. Plenty of early hacking of course.
Phil Bardsley tries to upend Hazard with a late, high challenge. Just a yellow? That maybe shoulda been a red.
The ref arguably just prevented a one-on-one opportunity with the keeper. Get out of the fucking passing channels, you amateur!
Ugh. The reason our opponents are getting red cards is because we move the ball quickly and are subject to late flying tackles that catch the man not the ball. Pretty basic notion, Martin.