Stoke City vs Chelsea match report: Champions sink to new depths with seventh league defeat

Stoke City 1 Chelsea 0

Chelsea's assistant first team coaches Steve Holland (R), Rui Faria and Silvino Louro on a Mourinho-less bench prior to kick off (Reuters)

With or without Jose Mourinho, things continue to go from bad to worse for Chelsea. After all the intrigue about where the banned manager would watch this game, all that mattered yesterday evening was that on the Britannia Stadium pitch his team fell to their third straight League defeat.

Marko Arnautovic inflicted the champions’ seventh loss in 12 Premier League matches with a spectacular acrobatic effort. After that there was no way back for the champions as they succumbed to a second setback at Stoke in the space of a couple of weeks.

Chelsea did not play all that badly but could not find a way through an impressively defiant Stoke defence, coming no closer than a Pedro drive against the post, and they ended the day fifth from bottom. Where this remarkable slide ends remains to be seen but fresh questions will be asked of the absent Mourinho, who has already presided over seven league defeats in a season for the first time in his managerial career.

Stoke's Marko Arnautovic celebrates his winning goal (Getty Images)

Before kick-off as the military brass band played Delilah, the Chelsea supporters sang Mourinho’s name. They did so again in the opening moments. There was no Mourinho, of course – apart from the life-size cardboard version paraded by the away fans in the Marston’s Pedigree Stand – but the champions still had Diego Costa on the pitch to fill the role of pantomime villain.

He ticked that box early on when seeming to flick a heel at Ryan Shawcross. Costa had suffered bruised ribs when Chelsea lost on this same ground in a Capital One Cup penalty shoot-out 11 days earlier and the Spain striker later recoiled in pain after taking a bang there in a challenge from Shawcross. It was a messy start, not helped by a lengthy pause after Pedro’s boot connected with Erik Pieters’ bloodied nose, but eventually things settled down and – much as in the sides’ Cup meeting – Chelsea had the better of the first half.

They had kicked off sitting fifth from bottom but had Nemanja Matic back after suspension and Eden Hazard and Pedro also restored to the starting XI, and they played the more purposeful football.

Stoke goalkeeper Jack Butland tipped over a 20-yard Ramires strike while Kurt Zouma and Costa both failed to connect with dangerous balls across goal. Willian was a central figure in trying to make things happen and though it was not easy against a Stoke defence given extra protection by the tireless Glenn Whelan and Charlie Adam, Chelsea did open them up five minutes before the break.

Costa ran at the Stoke defenders before feeding Pedro, who responded with a lovely flick back to the Spain striker, who shot hard and low, but Butland stuck out a foot and made a fine save.

For much of the first period Stoke’s creative players were a peripheral presence. Xherdan Shaqiri was asking questions of an uncomfortable-looking Baba Rahman but the only decent chance for the home side came when Bojan fed Glen Johnson who created room in the box for a low shot well saved by Asmir Begovic.

Eight minutes after the restart, though, it was Stoke who made the breakthrough through the hitherto anonymous Arnautovic.

Pedro’s theatrical response to a Johnson challenge raised the temperature inside the Britannia and it now climbed higher. Shaqiri sent Johnson breaking down the right and although Zouma stopped Walters capitalising on the cross, the ball fell to Arnautovic who struck with a brilliant scissors kick at the back post.

Chelsea had suffered for their defensive fragility once more and tempers began to fray. Willian and Arnautovic exchanged angry words and were spoken to be referee Anthony Taylor, while Shawcross was booked for putting an arm into the face of Costa.

With a noisy home crowd behind them, Stoke had their tails up and Arnautovic threatened a second goal when flicking over a cross by Shaqiri.

At the other end, Pedro curled a left-foot shot against the foot of a post after Willian’s square ball found him in space on the edge of the box.

Yet that came in a moment of inspiration rather than a sustained spell of Chelsea pressure. The response from the Chelsea bench – or Mourinho from afar – was to introduce Cesc Fabregas for Rahman and soon after Loïc Rémy replaced Ramires.

Finally they looked like breaking Stoke down. Fabregas teed up Hazard for a shot which deflected a whisker wide. Then Costa played in Rémy, who jumped over Butland but, off balance, failed to hit the target.