Premier League champions Chelsea travel to Britannia Stadium to take on Stoke City in their 12th Premier League 2015-16 game on Saturday.
The Blues are having one of their worst seasons this time, and the question on everybody's mind is: when will Jose Mourinho finally deliver in the English league this season? Chelsea have 11 points from 11 games so far in the season, and are 15th in the table at the moment, a spot below Stoke City. Stoke are two points ahead of them.
The two sides met in the round-of-16 of the League Cup just a few days back, and Mark Hughes just edged past Mourinho's men on penalties to win the game. Chelsea's fortunes worsened as they suffered a 1-3 defeat at the hands of London rivals Liverpool at the Stamford Bridge.
But will the UEFA Champions League win against Dynamo Kyiv midweek give the much-needed boost to the Blue army? That is exactly what everyone is keen to know. And the match against Stoke today will give the answer.
"I have nothing to say" remained the response from Mourinho after the defeat against the Reds last weekend, and for today's match, the Portuguese coach is set to miss the action completely from the stadium. Mourinho was handed a one-match ban by the FA following his rant on match officials during Chelsea's game against West Ham earlier this season.
The question remains where will the ex-Real Madrid manager be following the match from. "Maybe. Live scores? Results? Maybe," the Portuguese said ahead of the game.
"Maybe I will sit on the street corner with my iPad. You can imagine that it's not easy. You can imagine how I feel. And I don't want to speak a lot about it.
"I have no plans. Maybe I don't even watch the game. I cannot (have) contact with the game, so what's the point?" he said.
Stoke City manager Mark Hughes is urging his men to replicate their League Cup performance against Chelsea last month, and that will remain the motivation for them going into the match today. "I'd like to think if we put in the level of performance that we did in the Capital One Cup then hopefully we'll get a few more mentions," Hughes said.
"Anything that ups the level of performance you're at liberty to use (as motivation) and that's what we'll try to do. We know we need to improve our home form. Obviously we went some way towards that with our performance against Chelsea last time out here. We'll have to hit the same levels," the ex-Chelsea forward added.
Team news
Stoke City: Mark Muniesa (ankle) and Shay Given (knee) still remain sidelined because of their respective injuries, while Marco van Ginkel remains unvailable due to a loan agreement.
Chelsea: Branislav Ivanovic could be set for a return today, but Diego Costa (thigh) and Thibaut Courtois (knee) still remain on the sidelines. The possiblity of Radamel Falcao featuring in today's match also appears remote.
Possible starting XI
Stoke City: Butland; Johnson, Shawcross, Wollscheid, Pieters; Adam, Whelan, Shaqiri; Krkic, Arnautovic, Walters.
Chelsea: Begovic; Zouma, Terry, Azpilicueta, Baba Rahman; Matic, Ramires; Pedro, Oscar, Willian; Hazard.
Live streaming & TV listings of the game (Where to watch live)
Stoke City vs Chelsea is scheduled to kick-off at 5:30 pm GMT (11 pm IST, 6:30 pm BST, 12:30 pm EST).
In India, viewers can catch the game on Star Sports 4 and Star Sports HD 4. Online streaming will be available on Starsports.com and Hotstar.
In the UK and Ireland, viewers can catch the game on Sky Sports 1/HD and Now TV. Online streaming will be available on Sky Go and Sky Go Extra. Radio commentary of the game will be available on TalkSport.
In the US, viewers can catch the game on NBC Sports Network. Online streaming will be available on NBC Sports Live Extra. Radio commentary of the game will be available on Westwood One Sports.
Chelsea TV will also show the game live.
