Stoke City manager Mark Hughes believes Chelsea are capable of winning all their remaining Barclays Premier League matches, but is out to halt their improved form at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
Under Hiddink Chelsea have climbed from 16th to 10th, without losing a match.
Tuesday's 2-1 win over Norwich City moved Chelsea into the top half, while Hughes' men are seventh after a midweek 1-0 success over Newcastle United.
Three successive BPL wins have Stoke "bang on track" after a poor start to 2016, according Hughes, although the former Chelsea striker says Nemanja Matic's assertion that the Blues will be looking to win all their remaining league matches is achievable.
"They have a chance to salvage their season, which is incredible really given the situation they were in not too long ago," Hughes said. "For whatever reason they struggled early on but since the change in manager they have really kicked on.
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"One of their lads has said that they will be looking to win every game now. With it being a Chelsea player saying that you have to take note, because they are one of the only clubs in the league who could achieve that."
Hiddink said that Pedro (hamstring) and captain John Terry (muscle) are not fit enough to start, with the latter unlikely to be part of the sqaud, while Diego Costa may not last the full 90 minutes.
Hughes has a defensive injury crisis at Stoke, which sees Phil Bardsley (calf), Ryan Shawcross (back) and Glen Johnson (knee) ruled out. Geoff Cameron is also a doubt with a knock as Hughes seeks to end Stoke's wait for a league win at Stamford Bridge.
"To a certain extent our season is in our own hands. If we can take points off side who are in and around us then we will finish strongly," he added.
"We have good games at home against the likes of West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur and have to travel to Liverpool and Manchester City.
"There are some really interesting games from our point of view, and we are looking forward to them. We can beat our target from last season."
Chelsea (from): Amelia, Begovic, Blackman, Courtois, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Ivanovic, Miazga, Rahman, Terry, Fabregas, Hazard, Loftus-Cheek, Matic, Mikel, Oscar, Traore, Willian, Costa, Kenedy, Pato, Pedro, Remy.
Stoke City (from): Butland, Haugaard, Cameron, Muniesa, Pieters, Teixeira, Wollscheid, Afellay, Imbula, Ireland, Shaqiri, Shenton, Whelan, Arnautovic, Bojan, Crouch, Diouf, Joselu, Odemwingie, Walters.
Match Appointments
Referee: Mark Clattenburg Assistants: S Beck, J Collin Fourth Official: S Martin
Match Facts
- Chelsea have won all seven Barclays Premier League matches against Stoke City at Stamford Bridge, with the Potters scoring just two goals in that run.
- Guus Hiddink is unbeaten in his 11 league matches as Chelsea’s interim manager this season. No manager has gone 12 unbeaten at the start of a single spell as a manager at a BPL club.
- Mark Hughes has lost 30 and won none of his last 34 top-flght matches as a manager at Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea combined.
- Chelsea are on their longest unbeaten run of the season in the league (12 matches), which is also the second longest run of any team in 2015/16 (Tottenham Hotspur - 14).
Chelsea
Manager: Guus Hiddink
Stoke
Manager: Mark Hughes
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
