Chelsea-Stoke City Preview

Stoke City will be hoping to cause another upset when they welcome Chelsea to the Britannia Stadium.

Mark Hughes' Stoke (5-4-7) beat Arsenal 3-2 in their last home game, and on Monday evening will host the Blues - who they also beat 3-2 at the Britannia a year

ago. Despite those positive omens, the Potters have just one win in their last five in the Premier League and last season's victory over Chelsea is their only win in the last 12 meetings with the Londoners.

However, Hughes is hopeful that Chelsea's attacking approach will create space for his side to show what they can do on the counterattack.

"I just feel that when you go up against so-called bigger teams they are prepared to come out and attack, take their chances and back their own ability, and we have been able to exploit their weaknesses," Hughes said. "We've found it more difficult against teams who get people behind the ball. But the top teams will always have a go because they back their skill against yours. On any given day we can beat anybody in this league and we have proved that, so let's see where it takes us against Chelsea."

Jose Mourinho's Chelsea (12-3-1) watched as Manchester City draw level with them at the top of the table on Saturday thanks to a 3-0 win over Crystal Palace, but the Blues can go three points clear again heading into the trio of Christmas fixtures with a win over Stoke. As well as their strong league position, Chelsea have reached the League Cup semi-final stage and Champions League last 16, but Mourinho has ridiculed early talk of a quadruple.

"The quadruple can happen on Monday - but that's winning four matches in a row," Mourinho said, with a trademark glint in his eye during his pre-match press conference. "If we do a lot of them then we have the chance to win competitions, but I only think of one competition at a time. For the next few weeks it is the Premier League so that's all I think about at the moment.

"Some teams are luckier to have easier matches in this period," Mourinho added, ahead of a spell of four league games and an FA Cup tie in the space of a fortnight. "It's a difficult for us - three matches away and only one at home, even that home game is a London derby against West Ham. We have Tottenham, Southampton and Stoke next so that's difficult for us, but we are ready."

Chelsea have injury doubts over Didier Drogba and Thibaut Courtois, while Diego Costa's fitness may force Mourinho to rest the striker at some point over the Christmas period.

Stoke have concerns over the fitness of Stephen Ireland and Bojan Krkic, while Steve Sidwell andVictor Moses remain out.

Chelsea have outscored Stoke 27-6 in their 12 top-flight meetings, keeping eight clean sheets and conceding more than a single goal against the Potters just once.

Stoke have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last ten games, whereas Chelsea have shut out their opponents in four of their last five league matches.