Stoke City 3-2 Chelsea: Five talking points

The weekend of upsets just got bigger as Stoke City put in an inspired second half display to send Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea to a third defeat of the season at the Britannia Stadium. Andre Schurrle’s tremendous return to form proved in vain as goals from Peter Crouch, Stephen Ireland and Oussama Assaidi helped Stoke secure a famous victory over their highly fancied rivals. Here are 5 talking points from the match.

Petr Cech’s goalkeeping

Normally a reliable figure under the bar, Petr Cech has failed to reproduce the excellent form that he has carried over the past two seasons, the form that prompted Czech Republic captain to be on Barcelona’s radar as a replacement for the out of sorts Victor Valdes. This season, Cech has been inconsistent between the sticks, and has kept only 4 clean sheets so far. In this match, Cech was at fault for Stoke City’s first goal that cancelled out Schurrle’s 9th minute opener.

A harmless Stoke corner turned into disaster for Cech as he raced out of his line to a ball well beyond his reach. He did try to retreat but by then the ball had fallen to Peter Crouch who grabbed the opportunity with both hands and slotted through the legs of Cech. Cech has been at fault with both his decision making as well as his positioning, many a time this season. With December being a crucial juncture for Chelsea in all competitions, Mourinho will be hoping that Cech will regain the form that he displayed against Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the Champions League two seasons ago, couple of performances that shall remain etched in Chelsea lore.

Chelsea’s strike force

Chelsea’s frontline was largely in absentia on Saturday night as both goals came from the feet of a midfielder going by the name of Andre Schurrle. Fernando Torres, Demba Ba and Samuel Eto’o failed to find the net for the Blues in what continues to be an alarming trend for the West Londoners. Chelsea’s strikers have been out of sorts for most of the season, with most of the goals coming from midfield with the likes of Oscar, Eden Hazard and Frank Lampard finding the net regularly.

But Chelsea supporters may argue that Mourinho’s highly successful first spell at Chelsea also witnessed a similar trend, with most goals coming from midfield. With Didier Drogba being the striker he is, it is no surprise that Frank Lampard, Arjen Robben, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Damien Duff and Joe Cole found the net quite often. But the same cannot be said this season as Romelu Lukaku, Chelsea’s loanee at Everton has found the net more often in the Premier League than Torres, Ba and Eto’o combined. If Chelsea are to mount a serious challenge for the Premier League, it definitely will not be surprising if Mourinho decides to “Stoke” his frontline in the January transfer window.

Lucky Ryan Shawcross

The Stoke captain rode his luck to the fullest extent as two of his fouls escaped the eyes of the referee Jonathan Moss. The first incident was his nudge on Demba Ba that caught the Senegalese’s thigh and sent him tumbling. A long ball had picked out Ba, only for him to be sent down tumbling by Shawcross inside the Stoke box, a foul worthy of a yellow being inside the box. Ba was incredulous and raised his hands in dismay as the referee waved play on.

The second incident was when Shawcross stuck out an arm to prevent Samuel Eto’o from reaching for a loose ball and an onrushing Asmir Begovic could collect it easily. This could have definitely earned him a second “hypothetical” yellow, thus resulting in him being sent off and Stoke being a man down for the rest of the game. Another contentious decision by the referee was Jonathan Walters’ two-handed shove on John Terry right next to the assistant that resulted in a yellow. On another night that would have been a sending off, unquestionably. Not to forget Walters’ shove on Azpilicueta that resulted in Walters setting up Stephen Ireland for Stoke’s second goal. One Jonathan’s profligacy, another Jonathan the beneficiary.

Chelsea’s defensive frailties

Chelsea have conceded three goals for two games in a row, something uncharacteristic of Mourinho managed side. Sunderland managed to score three goals, albeit in a losing effort but Stoke managed to translate the three goals to a winning margin. Though Stoke’s second goal was a result of some botched-up refereeing, Chelsea were to blame for Stoke’s third as Samuel Eto’o was careless in possession and Chelsea’s backline were caught out of position.

During the first half, Chelsea’s centre-backs were solid in defense, averting any apparent Stoke danger and especially giving no aerial room for Peter Crouch. But in the second half the Chelsea backline was all over the place and Stoke took due advantage of this chaos at the back. Certainly not a memorable 33rd birthday for Chelsea skipper John Terry.

Mourinho’s substitutions

“Way to go, mate!” That’s what Mourinho seems to be telling Mark Hughes

Known for his shrewd and astute substitutions, the Mourinho on Saturday was unlike the Mourinho that the world was accustomed to seeing and has come to expect. Andre Schurrle was Chelsea’s best player on the pitch for over an hour and if Chelsea were to score it was likely to be him, but was surprisingly withdrawn in favor of Samuel Eto’o who failed to have an impact on the match.

This was very surprising when taking into consideration that this was Eto’o’s first game from injury after being stretchered off during the Champions League defeat to Basel. His counterpart for the night though, was bang on with his substitutions. Charlie Adam, who was forced off due to injury was replaced by Stephen Ireland who had a huge impact on the game, scoring a goal and threatening on many other occasions. But he saved his best for last as he brought on Oussama Assaidi in the late stages of the game and the Moroccan scored a spectacular goal to condemn Mourninho to a defeat at the Britannia.

Another questionable tactic deployed by Mourinho throughout the season has been his constant tampering of the line-up that he fields for matches. This has been detrimental to Chelsea’s rhythm of play though Mourinho claims that with the demanding schedule drawn up for his side through the course of the season, he has no other choice than to use the full strength of his squad.