Preview: Stoke City vs Chelsea: Tight affair in store

Chelsea face yet another rebirth under a new manager having hired Andre Villas Boas from FC Porto to replace the sacked Carlo Ancelotti.

Villas Boas won the Portuguese top division by an extraordinary margin last season, as well as guiding Porto to glory in the Europa League. Having previously worked at Chelsea under Jose Mourinho as a scout, Villas Boas will need to settle back into West London quickly to get his side off to a good start in one of the Premier League’s most feared away days, Stoke at the Britannia.

The new gaffer has promised “evolution, not revolution” at Stamford Bridge, insisting there will be no radical overhaul of the squad left behind by Ancelotti. Chelsea’s activity in the transfer market has been reasonably muted compared to previous years, with the two big signings perhaps representing a shift in policy towards recruiting youth.

Villas Boas’ first addition was defensive midfielder Oriol Romeu, a 19-year-old purchased for £5 million from Barcelona. Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian wonderkid is also joining Romeu at Stamford Bridge. Lukaku broke into the Anderlecht team at the tender age of 16 and ended up as the top scorer in the Belgian top flight with 15 goals in his debut season. The following year he grabbed league 16 goals. Now 18, Lukaku has been capped by Belgium nine times, scoring twice, and will be learning from the likes of Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres as he tries to break into Chelsea’s first-team.

Tony Pulis led Stoke to the club’s first ever FA Cup final and directed the club to a 13^th place finish in the Premier League. Despite losing in the cup final to Man City, Stoke earned qualification to the Europa League as runners-up. This could very well prove to be a difficult season for them as they juggle a continental campaign with their Premier League duties.

Central defenders Jonathan Woodgate and Matthew Upson have both joined on free transfers to bolster Stoke’s defence, while Pulis has been rumoured to be interested in bringing more attacking power to Stoke’s forward line.

Bet365 are offering odds of 13/5 on a draw being played out. Such an outcome is easily forseeable, given that it’s Chelsea’s first game under the new manager’s tactics and system coupled with Stoke’s great home record. However Villas Boas worked wonders in his first season at Porto, taking a club which has finished outside the Champions League qualification spots and leading them quite comfortable to the title the following season. Low-scoring affair could be on our hands here and if a team was to walk away with the three points it would likely be Chelsea via a 1-0 scoreline, which bet365 deems worthy of odds of 5/1.

Tip: Chelsea to win 1-0 @ 5/1