Stoke City v Chelsea: Mourinho calls for adaptability

Jose Mourinho wants to see his Chelsea side adapt to the likely threat of Stoke City when the teams meet at the Britannia Stadium on Monday.

Title-chasing Chelsea got back on track in the Premier League against Hull City last weekend, having surrendered their unbeaten start to 2014-15 against Newcastle United a week earlier.

However, with Manchester City hot on their heels, Mourinho’s side travel to Stoke needing no reminder of the corresponding fixture from last season. 

A stunning Oussama Assaidi strike gave Stoke all three points last term and, with City having beaten Crystal Palace on Saturday to move level on points at the summit, Mourinho can ill-afford another slip-up in Staffordshire.

The Portuguese called for his side to deal with what he sees as a dual threat from Mark Hughes’ men, who have already beaten City this term.

“They are a good and difficult side,” Mourinho said on Thursday.

“They have that important base that Tony Pulis gave them: physicality, set-pieces, aggressive, direct. This was the base of their success since they came to the Premier League.

“In the last couple of years with Mark Hughes, without losing that identity, he has brought some of his own ideas, some players that can have more than that physicality.

“We have to go there and play our game but we know well their qualities as a team and their qualities individually and we have also to adapt to it.”

While Stoke have showcased their ability to challenge the league’s better sides in games – beating Arsenal and Tottenham this season – a largely inconsistent campaign sees them sit in the bottom half.

One of the main positives for Hughes this term, however, has been the form of Bojan Krkic. 

The former Barcelona forward has regularly demonstrated his quality since arriving in the Premier League, with Hughes hopeful the 24-year-old can feature against Chelsea, despite suffering with a hip injury recently.

“It is a bit early in the week, but Bojan has trained for the past two days which is a positive for us,” explained the former Chelsea striker on Thursday.

“Hopefully, he will be fine. We certainly don’t envisage there being any real problems with him ahead of the game.”

Hughes still has doubts over Stephen Ireland (knee), while Mourinho could have a virtually clean bill of health, with Didier Drogba (ankle) and Thibaut Courtois (groin) set to return.

Kurt Zouma is available again after suffering a clash of heads with Petr Cech in the League Cup win over Derby County on Tuesday. Nathan Ake is likely to be Chelsea’s only absentee with a hamstring problem.