PRE-MATCH BRIEFING: STOKE CITY V CHELSEA

Domestic football is welcomed back with open arms after a highly eventful two weeks. With Chelsea aiming to maintain a 100 per cent start, club historian Rick Glanvill and club statistician Paul Dutton stake out Stoke.

TALKING POINTS
It's fifth hosting first, but not as many imagined it. Tony Pulis has masterminded Stoke City's best sequence on home soil since the days of his managerial namesake Waddington. All but three months of that 1973-75 spell was achieved with the talented former Chelsea midfielder Alan Hudson wearing the red and white stripes at the old Victoria Ground.

Stoke's new Britannia Stadium, perched on the Trent and Mersey Canal, can be a pleasant place to walk to. Last season's jaunt was a memorable one, not least because it produced several rare sights including a José Bosingwa left-foot scorcher into the net and, equally fascinatingly, the vision of a freeloading Potters fan tumbling (unharmed) from his vantage point in a tree behind an open corner of the ground. Perhaps the surprise of the first prompted the second.

The Blues' raiding right-back also set up a second for Nicolas Anelka to complete the scoring after Stoke, out-passed and outmanoeuvred for most of the match, rallied briefly.

KEY STAT Chelsea are looking to equal our club record 10 successive league wins, originally set between November 2005 and January 2006.

City have only lost twice at home in the league since that match, contributing greatly to their easy survival in the Barclays Premier League come last May, as well as providing their high placing this season - they have not yet won on their league travels.

Their goalkeeper Thomas Sorenson currently tops the clean sheets list with three. Chelsea are second top scorers this season with 10 goals, however, and have not lost at Stoke in the league since … 1975, towards the end of that record City streak.

Last September in this fixture, Chelsea were pursuing what would become a record-breaking sequence of away wins in the top flight and were well drilled in avoiding the throw-ins that had undone the likes of Arsenal when facing the Potters. Other teams got wise to Rory Delap's fierce barrage and it is now a less decisive weapon.

Prior to the two-week break for internationals, the Blues looked irresistible under Carlo Ancelotti. Statistics over recent seasons suggest that, despite the number of players travelling the globe to represent their country, Chelsea actually fare pretty well in the return to domestic action.

In the last two seasons there have been 12 games following internationals, and all but three have been won. The remainder were drawn, and all were home matches. However, when it is considered that all three stalemates were nil-nils, and two were struggling Newcastle and workaday Blackburn, perhaps we underestimate the effects at our peril. On the positive side, our record away win against Middlesbrough, 5-0, was recorded after one of these breaks.

Stoke bought sensibly in the summer, including our former centre-back, Robert Huth (pictured below). The Germany international made his Blues debut aged 17 back in 2002 and is warmly remembered at Chelsea principally for three reasons. Firstly, the lusty oomph applied by fans to his surname when it was announced in the team line-up; next the hammer thump he applied to long distance free-kicks; and finally his roguish transportation of several million pounds of footballer around the Stamford Bridge pitch on a groundsman's vehicle the day Chelsea were presented with the Premier League trophy.

Alan Shearer might be able to remind Chelsea's forwards that he is no respecter of reputations - as is they have forgotten.

If selected, he will need to be on his mettle. Chelsea are a more attack-minded force so far this season than last, attempting 109 shots (35 on target) over the first four league games, compared to 66 (20 on) at the start of 2008/9. The fit-again Didier Drogba has made a significant difference.

None of last season's top four have been shunted to Sunday this weekend. Liverpool have not suffered defeat to Burnley at Anfield since 1974. Arsenal return to Eastlands, scene of a classic 0-3 capitulation last season in which Chelsea's summer recruit Danny Sturridge earned and converted a late penalty. The last time second-placed Spurs earned all three points at home to United was in 2001.

Barclays Premier League fixtures
Saturday
Blackburn v Wolves 3pm
Liverpool v Burnley 3pm
Man City v Arsenal 3pm
Portsmouth v Bolton 3pm
Stoke v Chelsea 3pm
Sunderland v Hull 3pm
Tottenham v Manchester Utd 5.30pm - ESPN
Wigan v West Ham 3pm
Sunday
Birmingham v Aston Villa 12pm - Sky Sports
Fulham v Everton 4.15pm - Sky Sports

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