Lou Macari & Jack Butland – Stoke City gossip

Jose Mourinho leapt to the defence of his players after Chelsea were knocked out of the Capital One Cup in a penalty shoot-out by Stoke.

How times change. Back in March, Chelsea won this competition and it gave them the final push to go on to win the League.

As for Stoke, they welcome back skipper Ryan Shawcross after he recovered from back surgery while striker Mame Biram Diouf is also poised to make his first team comeback after being granted compassionate leave.

“To lose two players tonight is damaging for us, two offensive players”.

Asked if he had received any further encouragement about the security of his situation from his superiors he said: “I don’t need it. I don’t need more”.

“I am concerned, we have a big game on Saturday (against Swansea), we have Bayern in the Champions League coming up, already now we are short”.

Hazard had been his side’s outstanding player in the frantic hunt for the equaliser to Stoke’s second-half goal which eventually came from substitute Loïc Rémy in the 91st minute when other teams might have given up.

Chelsea likely XI to face Stoke City: Marco Amelia, Cesar Azpilicueta, Papy Djilobodji, Gary Cahill, Baba Rahman, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, John Obi Mikel, Bertrand Traore, Oscar, Kenedy and Radamel Falcao. The Irish global had a chance right in front of goal, but Asmir Begovic was able to smother the shot.

Despite Chelsea’s awful start to the season, they are still favourites to progress to the last eight of the tournament they won a year ago.

There have been reports that this weekend’s clash with Liverpool could be crucial for his future while a few have questioned whether the players are behind him. This latest injury may not be too serious but without him Chelsea lack menace and it only emphasises how short of attacking options they really are.

Stoke 1-2 Chelsea A.E.T: The Blues are is a mess and the pressure is on Mourinho to get his side going again. “Mark (Hughes) was a hero on Saturday when he scored against Arsenal, and now he knows his mistake has put us out of the cup”. Hazard orchestrated his team but it was where the ball went when it left Hazard that was the problem.