A Jose Mourinho-less Chelsea slumped to their second defeat to Stoke in as many weeks on Saturday night.
Marko Arnautovic’s acrobatic finish early in the second half was enough to see the Potters take all three points and consign Chelsea to their seventh defeat in just 12 league games this season.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was forced to watch the game from the team hotel as he served a stadium ban for his outburst at Upton Park last week.
After Arnautovic took the lead just eight minutes into the second half, people started to speculate on what Mourinho thought about seeing his side fall behind yet again.
In a three-star hotel room somewhere in Stoke-on-Trent, Mourinho has just called room service to order an Irish coffee and a can of Fanta
— Sam Wallace (@SamWallaceTel) November 7, 2015
https://twitter.com/AdamCrafton_/status/663065263286390785
Somewhere, in a Stoke hotel room, an angry man is putting a stand-up lamp through a generic piece of floral art.
— Nick Miller (@NickMiller79) November 7, 2015
GOAL for Stoke City.
Arnautovic makes it 1-0 on the rebound. Things go from bad to worse for Jose Mourinho. pic.twitter.com/ul4vLOoZwJ
— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 7, 2015
Some felt there was a certain dramatic irony in the goal, considering what Mourinho had once said of Arnautovic during their time together at Inter.
https://twitter.com/eaamalyon/status/663064383367450624
Might be apt if Arnautovic has scored the goal that ends Mourinho's time at Chelsea pic.twitter.com/N5gzdDETTl
— Ian Walsh (@walsh_i) November 7, 2015
Chelsea almost found an equaliser through Pedro’s curling shot, but were denied by the post.
Pedro, unlucky. The post is weak and naive. #STKCHE
— DeJi (@DJMightyMike) November 7, 2015
That Pedro shot off the post sums up our season..
— Feroze Ali (@feroze17) November 7, 2015
With just a five minutes of normal time remaining, Loic Remy rounded Jack Butland only to lose his balance before he could put the ball in the net. Chelsea fans weren’t happy to see Remy attempt to stay on his feet and score instead of going down and potentially getting Butland sent off.
Remy wasted a great opportunity for a penalty and red card!
— Bright Bayo Oladeji (@oladeji_bayo) November 7, 2015
https://twitter.com/Irimbere/status/663072252854972416
https://twitter.com/Matthew_Parkman/status/663072251957350400
Yoh Remy…how could you not dive
— Wethu (@WethuMomoti) November 7, 2015
Reward for honesty there. No penalty when clear penalty. Better off cheating if that's attitude of officials. #Chelsea #Stoke
— Ewan MacKenna (@EwanMacKenna) November 7, 2015
In the end, the Blues couldn’t do enough to overcome a stubborn Stoke team.
6: PL games lost by Chelsea in first two seasons under Mourinho, combined, of 76 (8%)
7: PL games lost by Chelsea this season, of 12 (58%)
— Nick Harris (@sportingintel) November 7, 2015
Chelsea WTF! Not trying to dig Chelsea fans out but is anyone else loving Mourinho in this position?!
— Jimmy Bullard (@jimmybullard) November 7, 2015
7 – Jose Mourinho has lost seven league games in a campaign for the first time as a manager. Humbled.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 7, 2015
https://twitter.com/CarefreeDaily/status/663074440411013120