Drogba (pen) 77

Chelsea cruised to their third consecutive EPL victory and third straight clean sheet against a well-organised but limited Stoke outfit, who were anxious to avoid the 7-1 thrashing they received at the Bridge in April.

The Blues top the EPL with its only 100% record, which was rarely threatened even though Chelsea were below their best and suffered injuries to key players Frank Lampard and John Terry.

Chelsea’s Ashley Cole and Stoke’s Jon Walters had early chances before the visitors’ Ryan Shawcross upended Florent Malouda in the penalty area.

Thomas Sorensen pulled off a rare save from a Lampard spot-kick. And he parried a viciously-struck Didier Drogba free-kick.

But he was left exposed on 32 minutes when Florent Malouda latched onto Terry’s fine through-ball and swept it right-footed into the net from the edge of the box.

Cole crashed a spectacular left-foot volley against the crossbar before half-time. But Glen Whelan shook the underside of Chelsea’s crossbar after the interval with a dipping 30-yarder past a static Blues’ keeper Petr Cech.

Chelsea’s nerves were settled on 77 minutes, however, when Sorensen rashly tripped Nicolas Anelka in the penalty box and Drogba sent the keeper the wrong way from the resultant penalty.