Stoke 1-2 Chelsea: Highlights and recap

Chelsea beat Stoke 2-1 at the Britannia on Saturday, March 18. Here are all the highlights from the match.

Stoke and Chelsea played out a feisty, occasionally end-to-end, mostly very strange match at the Britannia Saturday, with Chelsea running out 2-1 winners thanks to a late Gary Cahill goal.

The Potters started the match well, but fell behind in the 13th minute when Willian curled a deceptive free-kick in at the front post. Stoke keeper Lee Grant should have saved it, but it was a well-placed finish from the Brazilian, who was starting in place of the injured Eden Hazard.

Chelsea settled after taking the lead and looked the more threatening of the two sides, but Stoke continued to apply pressure, especially on set pieces. Bruno Martins Indi had what looked like a legitimate goal chalked off after Saido Berahino was deemed to have pushed Cesar Azpilicueta off the ball.

That was minutes before the Potters were awarded a penalty for a Gary Cahill shove on Jon Walters. Walters went down conspicuously easily, but he made no mistake from the spot, finishing into the roof of the net.

The second half didn’t produce much action to speak of. The most notable incidents involved various Stoke players getting in various scuffles with Diego Costa, who was at his best as a winder-upper of opposition defenders.

Mark Hughes’ side were beginning to dominate the game in the final 10 minutes, but again fell behind during a period of relative dominance. It was some sloppy defending that cost the Potters again, when Erik Pieters’ poor clearance allowed Cahill to finish from close range to give the Blues another win.

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Highlights

Chelsea extended their lead at the top of the table to 13 points. That could fall back down to 10 depending on Tottenham and Manchester City’s results on Sunday. Stoke stay ninth, but could fall one place if Southampton beat Spurs on Sunday.