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Chelsea out to Stoke title dream amid record chase
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CHELSEA can take another step towards English football history when it hosts Stoke City tomorrow, as the English Premier League’s jam-packed festive schedule rumbles into 2017.
Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Bournemouth on Boxing Day was its 12th in succession, leaving it two wins short of Arsenal’s overall top-flight record of 14, set over two seasons in 2002.
With each win, Antonio Conte’s side has looked more and more like a champion-in-waiting, but with half the season still to go, Chelsea’s players are desperately trying to ignore the hype.
“It’s unbelievable because it’s very difficult to do that in the Premier League, but the team are very compact on the pitch and that’s the right way,” Spanish forward Pedro Rodriguez told the club website. “Bournemouth are a good team and it was very difficult. Stoke are also a very good team, but we must take it game by game.”
Scorer of two goals against Bournemouth, Pedro will be suspended for the visit of Stoke, which should see top scorer Diego Costa — banned on Boxing Day — return to the starting XI.
Midfield lynchpin N’Golo Kante is also available again after suspension.
Stoke fell 1-4 at Liverpool on Tuesday, having gone ahead through Jonathan Walters, and left-back Erik Pieters has urged his teammates to show more belief against the leading sides.
“Sometimes we have a good 20 minutes, sometimes we have a good second half, but in patches we have been bad — we need to learn to control the game,” said the Dutchman, whose side is 13th in the table.
Liverpool’s victory took it back to second place, six points below Chelsea, and it will stage the biggest game of the New Year weekend when third-place Manchester City visits Anfield tomorrow.
City trails Liverpool by a point, having won its last three matches, and coach Pep Guardiola was in attendance to watch Juergen Klopp’s team overcome Stoke.
“It’s a difficult game for both teams, but exciting and the best thing is it’s at Anfield,” said Klopp, who sparred with Guardiola’s Bayern Munich during his successful spell as Borussia Dortmund coach.
“I am really looking forward to it. They are an outstandingly good side and we are not too bad, so it will be a nice game.”
Arsenal, two points below City in fourth place, will look to build on Monday’s last-gasp 1-0 win over West Bromwich Albion when it hosts Sam Allardyce’s Crystal Palace on New Year’s Day.
Arsene Wenger’s side had lost its two previous games and with Chelsea nine points above it, its margin for error is thin.
Palace, held to a 1-1 draw by Watford on Monday in Allardyce’s first game in charge since succeeding the sacked Alan Pardew, sits two points above the relegation zone.
Manchester United has closed to within sight of Arsenal and will expect to record a fifth successive victory when 15th-place Middlesbrough visits on New Year’s Eve.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan netted a stunning ‘scorpion kick’ volley as Jose Mourinho’s men beat Sunderland 4-1 last time out, which was a further sign that belief has returned to Old Trafford.
“We have a lot of confidence now and we’re in good shape,” Daley Blind, who scored United’s opening goal, told MUTV.
Chastened champion Leicester City, three points above the drop zone, will hope to chase away some of the storm clouds overhead when it hosts a West Ham United team which is seeking a fourth successive win.
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