The Unstoppable Blues

Chelsea finished the year with a flourish and a 13th straight league victory after Stoke had twice equalised in the second half.

Gary Cahill headed the only goal before the interval, but immediately after the restart the Potters responded through Bruno Martins Indi.

Willian had  Chelsea back in front with a clever strike, and no sooner had Peter Crouch levelled again, the Brazilian no.22 blasted chelsea into a 3-2 lead.

Diego Costa capped another excellent afternoon’s work with a fine individual strike of his own late on, ensuring the Blues will head to White Hart Lane on Wednesday night on the back of a club record 10th straight victory in all competitions. 

It was no shock to see both Diego Costa and N’Golo Kante back in Antonio Conte’s starting XI after suspension. That same fate meant Pedro was one of those to make way. Nemanja Matic dropped to the bench, perhaps with a potential fifth booking to him in mind.

Stoke brought the creative Ibrahim Afellay and Xherdan Shaqiri into the team following their 4-1 defeat at Liverpool earlier in the week. Joe Allen moved back into central midfield.

Eden Hazard and Kante had a couple of early sighters but neither troubled Lee Grant between Stoke’s posts. At the other end, David Luiz and Cesar Azpilicueta had to be at their defensive best to clear a pair of very dangerous Charlie Adam free-kicks.

It looked like Chelsea might have broken the deadlock with 18 minutes played when Diego Costa chested a Cesc Fabregas pass inside Mame Diouf and thumped a volley goalwards. Grant used his chest to keep it out and the rebound fell kindly in to his path, too. Stoke’s stopper then had to claw a downward header from Cahill away.

Chelsea (3-4-3): Courtois; Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Cahill (c); Moses (Ivanovic 82), Kante, Fabregas (Matic 73), Alonso; Willian (Chalobah 84), Diego Costa, Hazard.
Unused subs Begovic, Zouma, Loftus-Cheek, Batshuayi.
Scorers Cahill 34, Willian 57, 65, Diego Costa 84
Booked Moses 24, Fabregas 59, Alonso 70

Stoke City (3-4-3): Grant; Johnson, Shawcross (c), Martins Indi; Diouf, Adam, Allen, Pieters; Shaqiri (Bojan 61), Affelay (Imbula 61); Crouch.
Unused subs Given, Bardsley, Sobhi, Whelan, Bony.
Scorers Martins Indi 46, Crouch 64
Booked Diouf 70, Adam 86

Referee Robert Madley
Crowd 41,601