Chelsea v Stoke
15:00
Chelsea romped to a twelfth straight in on Boxing Day with a 3-0 thumping of Bournemouth, and their performance was every bit as dominant as it was in the extraordinary 5-0 defeat of Everton in early November. They will welcome back Costa and Kante after their respective suspensions, and they continue to look extremely hard to stop. Stoke could only limp to a 4-1 defeat at Anfield, and having avoided defeat at Stamford Bridge only once in their last 10 trips, they will be braced for a long afternoon.
Chelsea look utterly without weakness since switching to the wingback-focused formation under Conte. They have conceded just twice in this 12-game winning stretch, and while the three victories prior to the win over Bournemouth were 1-0 wins, they have not looked like conceding except in the game against Man City. The Stoke side they face have lost all 10 of their most recent visits to top-six sides, with six of those losses seeing them go behind before half time as well. They’ve failed to get on the scoresheet in five of the last seven of those games, and most of the defeats have been heavy: eight of the 10 losses have seen over 2.5 match goals. As such, they will face an uphill battle to take anything away from this match.
With Stoke so poor against top sides away from home, this could easily be another Chelsea romp. Chelsea and Over 2.5 looks a good bet.
