Hughes confident of ending Chelsea hoodoo

Stoke City manager Mark Hughes believes his side can turn around their fortunes against Chelsea.

The Britannia Stadium outfit have faced Chelsea on 10 occasions in the Premier League, taking just two points.

Stoke have not beaten the London club in the league since 1975, and were well beaten 4-0 the last time the sides met in January.

However, although Hughes expects Chelsea to create chances this weekend, the Welshman is confident his men can upset the odds.

“I don’t think our record against Chelsea is too fantastic to be honest, but there always comes a time when that has to change,” he said.

“We will look to be on the front foot and we will look to cause them as many problems as possible. That said, we do understand that they will press forward too, so it should be an exciting game.

“We know that if we can keep the ball, progress through the pitch and play to the levels that we know we are capable of then we can cause them a number of problems too.

“You have to accept that they will get chances, and they will retain possession for long spells, so we will have to be disciplined when we are defending. It is a challenge that we are all looking forward to.”

Stoke head into the encounter on the back of a 0-0 draw at home to Cardiff City on Wednesday, a result that followed a 4-0 hammering at Everton.

Hughes feels the team can take confidence from the performance against Malky Mackay’s men.

“We can take a lot of positives into tomorrow’s game from what we produced against Cardiff,” he added. “We restricted them to a couple of long-range efforts, and totally dictated long periods of the game.

“We maybe weren’t able to create a real clear-cut chance, but there were half chances in which we probably should have done better with.”

Hughes confirmed full-back Erik Pieters may be unavailable on Saturday after coming off injured against Cardiff with a groin strain.

Marc Muniesa, who replaced Pieters in midweek, is on standby to fill in again if necessary.