Penultimate weekend, Jose Mourinho was forced to watch from the Chelsea team hotel as Stoke City defeated the Blues 1-0 at the Britannia Stadium due to his serving a one-match stadium ban and could do little to stop his side slumping to their seventh defeat of the Premier League season.
It took a Marko Arnautovic’s 53rd minute strike to make the difference between the two sides as Chelsea dropped to 16th on the Premier League ladder.
Today at the Stamford Bridge, Mourinho will have an opportunity to redeem his image and that of Chelsea from the free fall the team has been experiencing as they face 15th place Norwich City and avoid a further plunge down the ladder.
The last time Norwich visited Stanford Bridge they were mauled 4-1 but same certainly may not be the case today as Chelsea’s form remains suspect.
The Chelsea boss will still be without Thibaut Courtois and there are also doubts surrounding the fitness of Falcao and Kurt Zouma.
Loic Remy is challenging for a start ahead of an underperforming on international duty, but should be fine for the reception of Norwich and Branislav Ivanovic should return to the side having missed their last seven matches in all competitions.
Norwich on the other hand will welcome back captain Russell Martin after he sat out their 1-0 win over Swansea before the international break through suspension.
Matt Jarvis is still out and Nathan Redmond is also a doubt for the trip to Stamford Bridge.
There may be concerns over Wes Hoolahan’s fitness after he featured in both of Ireland’s matches against Bosnia in the space of three days.
The Premier League champions are only three points off the bottom three after 12 matches having lost four of their last five league games.
Norwich, on the other hand, stopped a run of four straight defeats in the league to pick up their first win since September when they beat Swansea before the international break. In order to win this fixture, they are going to have to overcome a head-to-head record that reads six defeats in their last eight encounters with Chelsea.
Even in this state, Chelsea should have enough to overcome them here but it is still anybody’s game. Agency report
