Petr Cech was back in the side for this one, having recovered from his injury a week earlier than expected. Gary Cahill's partner was in labor, which saw him becoming the proud father of a baby boy, which saw David Luiz start along side Branislav Ivanovic at center back, as John Terry wasn't fit enough to start. Ashely Cole and Azpilicueta took the two full back duties. Ramires and Frank Lampard covered the two pivot roles, with Bertrand playing in a attacking midfield alongside Juan Mata and Eden Hazard. Demba Ba started up front (thankfully!). Away to Stoke was always going to be a tough game, especially with our absentees, but this starting 11 still looked the better team on paper.
A slow start saw Stoke have the greater share of possession, which made it hard for Chelsea to get into promising attacking positions. Stoke managed to push Chelsea back, but didn't look extremely dangerous going forward. An early Kenwyne Jones strike split our defence, but luckily it was just wide of the far post, with Cesar Azpilicueta putting a lot of pressure on the Trinidadian striker. If he had managed to find the net, we would have had a very tough game on our hand.
Chelsea got into the game after this, with a lovely piece of play resulted in a one on one chance for Frank Lampard, which resulted in Begovic pulling out a great save. I quite liked the one-touch football in this move, so it is a shame that we didn't take the most of the chance.
After a slow first half, the first goal came just before the half time break, with Jonathon Walters scoring his first own goal of the game. Hazard picked the ball up at the edge of the box, who played the ball through to Cesar Azpilicueta who was attacking on his right hand side. Cesar whipped the ball in towards Demba Ba, who couldn't quite reach the ball as it flew past his head. The ball looked to fall to Juan Mata, but Jonathon Walters jumped in the way to try and prevent the ball getting to Spaniard, which resulted in him headering the ball past his own keeper.
The ref pointed to the spot as Cesar Azpilicuta brought down Matthew Etherington in the box, and without many complaints Stoke had a penalty. However, linesman (or lineswoman!) Sian Massey had already called the run off-side, which to the relief of Cesar and the rest of the Chelsea players and fans saw a free kick awarded our way.
Juan Mata whipped in a precise corner in the 62nd minute, which looked to be flying towards the head of Frank Lampard. Demba Ba cleverly blocked the run of Ryan Shawcross which saw Jonathon Walters again heading the ball into his own net as he tried to defend the ball from Frank. It's a shame of Walters behalf, as both own goals were a result of him trying to defend, but even if he hadn't of got a touch of the ball, I think Frank would have converted the chance.
64 minutes in saw a lovely ball played by Lampard, over the head of ex Chelsea player Robert Huth to find Juan Mata pacing into the Stoke City box. With Huth pushing the Spaniard from behind, Mata continued to stay up until Ryan Shawcross cut across the box and slide in an attempt to win the ball, which saw Mata fall to the ground awarding Chelsea with a penalty, and a chance for Jonathon Walters to get his hat-trick. Joking aside, Frank Lampard converted from the spot to see his goal tally for the season reach 8.
A slow start saw Stoke have the greater share of possession, which made it hard for Chelsea to get into promising attacking positions. Stoke managed to push Chelsea back, but didn't look extremely dangerous going forward. An early Kenwyne Jones strike split our defence, but luckily it was just wide of the far post, with Cesar Azpilicueta putting a lot of pressure on the Trinidadian striker. If he had managed to find the net, we would have had a very tough game on our hand.
Chelsea got into the game after this, with a lovely piece of play resulted in a one on one chance for Frank Lampard, which resulted in Begovic pulling out a great save. I quite liked the one-touch football in this move, so it is a shame that we didn't take the most of the chance.
After a slow first half, the first goal came just before the half time break, with Jonathon Walters scoring his first own goal of the game. Hazard picked the ball up at the edge of the box, who played the ball through to Cesar Azpilicueta who was attacking on his right hand side. Cesar whipped the ball in towards Demba Ba, who couldn't quite reach the ball as it flew past his head. The ball looked to fall to Juan Mata, but Jonathon Walters jumped in the way to try and prevent the ball getting to Spaniard, which resulted in him headering the ball past his own keeper.
The ref pointed to the spot as Cesar Azpilicuta brought down Matthew Etherington in the box, and without many complaints Stoke had a penalty. However, linesman (or lineswoman!) Sian Massey had already called the run off-side, which to the relief of Cesar and the rest of the Chelsea players and fans saw a free kick awarded our way.
Juan Mata whipped in a precise corner in the 62nd minute, which looked to be flying towards the head of Frank Lampard. Demba Ba cleverly blocked the run of Ryan Shawcross which saw Jonathon Walters again heading the ball into his own net as he tried to defend the ball from Frank. It's a shame of Walters behalf, as both own goals were a result of him trying to defend, but even if he hadn't of got a touch of the ball, I think Frank would have converted the chance.
64 minutes in saw a lovely ball played by Lampard, over the head of ex Chelsea player Robert Huth to find Juan Mata pacing into the Stoke City box. With Huth pushing the Spaniard from behind, Mata continued to stay up until Ryan Shawcross cut across the box and slide in an attempt to win the ball, which saw Mata fall to the ground awarding Chelsea with a penalty, and a chance for Jonathon Walters to get his hat-trick. Joking aside, Frank Lampard converted from the spot to see his goal tally for the season reach 8.
Frank Lampard should have made it 4 as Demba Ba's shot got blocked by Huth, which saw the ball fall to Eden Hazard. Mata played the ball into the head of Demba Ba (I love the way we can play high balls into the box now Ba is in there), who played the ball down to Frank, who's first time volley saw Begovic deny the Englishman yet again.
73 minutes in saw Eden Hazard make it 4, scoring his 7th in a Chelsea shirt. There's not much to say about this goal, other than Hazard struck it beautifully from 35 yards which saw it fly passed Begovic and into the top corner. Hazard had a brilliant game, and topped it off after scoring this.
John Terry was finally welcomed back into the side after his injury against Liverpool, which saw him give away a penalty with ten minutes of the game left to be played. It was the correct decision by the ref as Terry accidently tripped him from behind. This was Walters' chance to redeem himself after the disastrous two own goals. Walters was eager to hit the net, and gave it his all with a powerful shot only to see it hit the cross bar. What a bad day for him, oh well! We don't care!
In conclusion I am very happy with this win. Stoke is a hard place to go to, but we broke their un-beaten run at home, and by four goals. Demba Ba completely changed the way we play in a positive way, with more runs being made on the wing as we can confidently cross the ball into the box where he is. 4-0 was a bit generous, as by the scoreline it seems like it was a completely one sided game, which it wasn't as we both had the same amount of attempts on goal, and the possession split 56-44 in our favor.
73 minutes in saw Eden Hazard make it 4, scoring his 7th in a Chelsea shirt. There's not much to say about this goal, other than Hazard struck it beautifully from 35 yards which saw it fly passed Begovic and into the top corner. Hazard had a brilliant game, and topped it off after scoring this.
John Terry was finally welcomed back into the side after his injury against Liverpool, which saw him give away a penalty with ten minutes of the game left to be played. It was the correct decision by the ref as Terry accidently tripped him from behind. This was Walters' chance to redeem himself after the disastrous two own goals. Walters was eager to hit the net, and gave it his all with a powerful shot only to see it hit the cross bar. What a bad day for him, oh well! We don't care!
In conclusion I am very happy with this win. Stoke is a hard place to go to, but we broke their un-beaten run at home, and by four goals. Demba Ba completely changed the way we play in a positive way, with more runs being made on the wing as we can confidently cross the ball into the box where he is. 4-0 was a bit generous, as by the scoreline it seems like it was a completely one sided game, which it wasn't as we both had the same amount of attempts on goal, and the possession split 56-44 in our favor.
With Tottenham's draw away to QPR, Chelsea climb back into 3rd position and in an automatic qualification place for the Champions League. A 4-0 away win is a nice way to respond from a disappointing mid-week loss to Swansea. Bring on Arsenal!!
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