Chelsea’s Davide Zappacosta scores late to leave Stoke truly crushed

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With this simple victory Chelsea ambled a little closer to Manchester City at the top of the table and highlighted the weakness of Stoke City’s squad. At no point did this match seem like an authentic contest, Mark Hughes’ side seeming like ragtag underlings even before Antonio Rüdiger opened the scoring in the third minute. Danny Drinkwater, Pedro, Willian and Davide Zappacosta amused themselves by adding their names to score sheet after that.

Chelsea omitted key players such as Eden Hazard and Cesc Fàbregas in advance of Wednesday’s showdown with Arsenal but that was probably an unnecessary precaution, since the hosts did not have to exert themselves to trounce these woeful visitors. Hughes was deprived of his first-choice central defenders and also chose to leave out other regular starters – thus increasing the pressure on him for Monday’s low-brow encounter with Newcastle –but the shabbiness of the side sent out against the champions spoke badly about the state of Stoke.

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from Football | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/dec/30/chelsea-stoke-premier-league-match-report

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