Securing Christmas joy

Tonight sees the Blues get a chance for revenge against Stoke City, after the same fixture last year saw a 90th minute Oussama Assaidi goal condemn us to a late defeat at the Britannia Stadium. 

Between that and Manchester City's win over Crystal Palace, victory on Monday night could really help to remind the rest of the league that Chelsea are at the top for a reason. 

Fortunately for fans of the league leaders, most signs point to a good result for Jose Mourinho's Blues. Apart from last season's blip at the Britannia, Chelsea haven't lost away to Stoke in nearly 40 years, since a defeat all the way back in 1975. 

For anyone else looking for omens, Monday night matches tend to be kind to Chelsea too. We don't play the last fixture of the 'weekend' very often, but tend to enjoy the extra rest it gives the players, having not lost on a Monday night in the last 11 fixtures - and only once in their last 19 Monday night appearances. 

The defeat to Newcastle at the start of the month set a lot of tongues wagging about a potential decline at Stamford Bridge, with many people jumping on the chance to talk about how the match was the 'beginning of the end' for the current good run, but the side have looked back to their imperious best since then.

Wins over Hull, Sporting and Derby have followed the Newcastle game, with a comfortable two-goal winning margin in each of them - hardly the declining form of a team in crisis. 

Indeed, Chelsea only need to avoid defeat in this match to give Jose Mourinho the best present of all. No, it's not a nice new pair of warm socks to keep his feet warm on the touchline - it's the gift of leading the league at Christmas. 

City's winning margin over Crystal Palace means that the Blues have to do at least some work to remain at the pinnacle of the league - a 1-0 City win would've meant that Chelsea could lose 2-0 and stay top - but it'd take a brave punter to bet on the Blues spending their Christmas in second place (most bookmakers are offering 5/1, for the record). 

Didier Drogba is a doubt for the game with injury and could be an unexpectedly painful loss. Before the season, few people expected him to do more than sit on the bench behind Diego Costa and Loic Remy, but recent months have seen the big Ivorian score three goals and come up with two assists in just 203 minutes on the pitch.

It shows that despite his age, Drogba can still challenge the very best out there and that Chelsea's attacking ranks are perhaps even stronger than a lot of people on the outside realise. 

Thibaut Courtois also looks like being fit to play his first game since the Newcastle defeat, so Petr Cechwill probably drop back to the bench.

As much as Jose Mourinho insists the quadruple isn't even something that his side are considering, some fans are definitely now starting to dream. We are in the semi-finals of the Capital One Cup and could easily map the same path through the FA Cup. 

The Premier League title race will go down to the wire, but a three-point lead going into this weekend, plus the fact most of the tricky away trips are already taken care of - Anfield, Old Trafford and the Etihad have all been navigated - while Man City still have to face a trip to fortress Stamford Bridge. 

As for the fourth title, the Champions League will be the trickiest of the lot. The last 16 tie against Paris Saint-Germain will be a hard-fought one, albeit one that Chelsea won over two legs last year and potential future clashes with Bayern or Real Madrid promise to be titanic battles - but battles that Chelsea could absolutely win. 2014 has been fun, but 2015 could get so much better. 

By Oshosboy David, Chelsea fan.