Although Stoke finished in 13th place, they were the 7th best home team last term scoring 31 goals, one more than 5th placed Tottenham and only conceded 18 goals at home, one less than Tottenham.
Tony Pulis has done remarkably well with limited resources, taking Stoke to the FA Cup final, which they lost 0-1 to Man City (with their immense financial strength!)
That being said, this is football on a different playing field. Chelsea ended the season with nothing shiny to take back to Stamford Bridge after a League title/FA Cup double the previous season, and they have Villas-Boas eager to make a necessarily speedy positive impression (5 managers in 3 years). I can see Chelsea starting the season with all guns blazing, as they did last season; scoring 6 goals without reply in each of their first two league games, at home to West Brom and away toWigan. In their first 7 games of last season, Chelsea scored a total of 28 goals whilst conceding only 6 goals.
Last season, Chelsea had the joint best defensive record with Man City, with respect to goals conceded, and the second best goals scored total of 69, compared to Stoke’s 46 goals.
Before Chelsea’s form dropped off in the last 3 games of the season,Chelsea had gone 10 league games undefeated with 8 wins and 2 draws.
With the players Chelsea have at their disposal, where a player of Drogba’s quality isn’t sure if he will get a game, I can’t see past an away win here, but Stoke will be no pushover.
Away win 1-2
Current best odds for the away win are from PaddyPower at 1.67
and the best odds for the 1-2 scoreline are from Victor Chandler at 8.50
Laith Amiry, weekendfootball
