AGENCIES
LONDON
Stoke manager Mark Hughes says his side travel to Stamford Bridge on New Year's Eve with the intention of bringing Chelsea's winning run to an end.
Hughes' side face a daunting task against a Chelsea team that has won 12 consecutive Premier League games to power six points clear at the top of the table.
Stoke travel to London on the back of a 4-1 defeat at second-placed Liverpool on Tuesday night, but Hughes believes there were positives to draw from the performance at Anfield and feels his side can also take heart from their 1-1 draw at Chelsea last season.
"The run they [Chelsea] are on at the moment is absolutely outstanding, but that run will come to an end at some point," said Hughes.
"I don't think anyone thinks that from now until the end of the season they will win every game. We're going into it with the intention of stopping the run if we can - and why can't it be us?
"We were disappointed with the margin of defeat in the end against Liverpool but, until their equaliser, I thought we caused them a real problem.
"We went into it really positive, and we showed in that initial period that we can cause good teams problems. The key is to be able to do it for more than half an hour or so. That is the intention and hope in terms of our improvement at the weekend.
"There was frustration from our point of view at how the game panned out on Tuesday, so we will use that frustration to help us in our performance at the weekend I'm sure.
"And we went there last year and got our first point at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League, which proves we have good talent in our team."
