Cahill scores late winner for Chelsea
Stoke 1 Chelsea 2
Gary Cahill atoned for conceding a penalty by scoring the late winner that saw Chelsea extend their lead at the top of the Premier League to 13 points.
The stand-in Blues skipper latched on to a poor clearance following a Cesc Fabregas corner to drill in with his right foot on 87 minutes.
Earlier, Cahill had been penalised for a foul on Jonathan Walters, which allowed the Stoke man to cancel out Willian’s opening goal.
The Blues were given a helping hand to take the lead, with Willian’s free-kick from wide on the left catching Stoke goalkeeper Lee Grant out at his near post, and he could not prevent it squirming across the line.
Stoke thought they had levelled through Bruno Martins Indi’s header, but it was ruled out for Saido Berahino’s push on Pedro.
However, the Potters did get their equaliser seven minutes before the break when Cahill’s foul was punished by Walters.
Marcos Alonso struck the bar with a free-kick in the second half and Pedro’s left-footed shot was turned away by Grant as Chelsea dominated the ball but were struggling to find the breakthrough.
That was until Fabregas’ corner found David Luiz, whose header towards goal was not dealt with by Erik Pieters, and Cahill pounced.
Stoke ended the game with 10 men after Phil Bardsley was dismissed for a second bookable offence, following a foul on abregas.
Chelsea: Courtois; Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill; Moses (Fabregas 70), Kante, Matic (Loftus-Cheek 82), Alonso; Willian (Zouma 88), Costa, Pedro.
Subs not used: Begovic, Ake, Chalobah, Batshuayi.
