Chelsea steamroll self destructive Stoke City

A miserable outing for Jonathan Walters on his 100^th Premier League appearance saw him score two own goals, and miss a penalty as his team crumbled to a 4 – 0 defeat at home to Chelsea. It’s a win that put Chelsea in the driver’s seat for third position, as they are now a point ahead of local rivals Tottenham, and have a game in hand. Stoke City though, continue to remain in tenth position, quite unaffected by this result, apart from the emotional regrouping that they will need to do.

It was a physical start to the game in front of the Potters’ home fans, as referee Andre Marriner chose not to take more than one chance that he had to book a couple of players in the opening minutes. Demba Ba in particular, seemed to have caught the eye of the Stoke defenders, with Huth bringing him down with particular force on one occasion. The first meaningful piece of action came at the other end of the pitch though, as a Stoke corner was played out to Wilkinson, whose shot deflected into the path of Kenwyne Jones. Finding himself one on one with Petr Cech though, Jones was found wanting, as his shot over the Czech ‘keeper’s shoulders bounced just wide of goal, and quite incredibly so.

It was the home team who continued to have the better of the opening exchanges, with Cech being the busier of the two men in goal. In fact, the dominance of Stoke was so well established by the 25^th minute that the Stoke fans ventured to chant “Boring” at the visitors, who, at the precise moment, opened up the Stoke defence, and put Lampard through on goal. Begovic, though, has been in fantastic form this season for Tony Pulis’ side, and got down well to deny Lampard’s decent effort. This gave Chelsea some impetus, and they began to look more threatening, soon drawing another good save from Begovic. This time it was Ba who had the effort on goal after being well found with a ball over-the-top from Lampard, before an excellent tackle from Wilkinson denied Ramires a powerful drive from the rebound.

About 10 seconds from the end of the two minutes of added time at the end of the first half though, all of Stoke City’s good work came crashing down as a cross from Azpilicueta was bulleted into his own goal by Walters, past a helpless Begovic. Eden Hazard made the best of the choices available to him on the edge of the box, and picked out the young full back whose cross was headed for Mata before it was intercepted by the Irishman, and gave Stoke a seemingly unfair disadvantage at the half time break. There were grim scenes unfolding at the whistle though, as Pulis was seen giving Marriner an earful, while Benitez walked along with a smug look on his face.

Five minutes into the second half, it was a familiar sight on show, as Asmir Begovic pulled off another save with his foot, this time to deny Ashley Cole’s shot from sneaking in inside his right post. A few minutes later, Petr Cech was called into making his first real save of the match, as an N’zonzi effort was well on target, but straight at the Chelsea #1. Stoke City thought they had a penalty in the 58^th minute, when Etherington was brought down in the box by Azpilicueta after a quick break. Just as the visitors were protesting their case, however, the referee who was seemingly pointing to the spot gave offside against the Stoke player instead, on the advice of the lineswoman, and rightfully so.

In the 62^nd minute, however, Stoke had more reason to feel woeful after their deficit went up to two goals, as another own goal from John Walters, who wasn’t quite aware of the location of the ball, made it 2-0 to the visitors. Their misery was only compounded when, two minutes later, Juan Mata went down in the Stoke box and earned a penalty, amidst Stoke protests, as there seemed very little reason for the Spaniard to have gone down. Supposed dead man walking, Lampard, stepped up and smashed it high into the net straight down the middle to put Stoke three down, and celebrate yet another goal for his club. He nearly added another within a few minutes, but was denied yet again by Begovic, although the shot hit the ‘keeper more than anything else.

There wasn’t much the man in Stoke’s goal could do a couple of minutes past the seventy minute mark though, when Hazard placed a ball brilliantly into his top right corner, making it 4 – 0 to the visitors.

There was a chance for redemption for Jonathan Walters, when he won a penalty off the returning John Terry two minutes from time, but it was just meant to be a torrid outing for him, as his attempt straight down the middle hit the crossbar and floated into the crowd. There was little to bring cheer to the Stoke fans as the game finished with their biggest defeat of the season, at home, and blew their excellent defensive record apart.

Result: Stoke City 0 – 4 Chelsea (Jonathan Walters (OG) 45’+2, (OG) 62’, Frank Lampard (P) 65’, Eden Hazard 73’)