Denis Smith thinks Ricardo Carvalho will be a major loss for Chelsea

CATCHING snippets on the TV and in the newspapers, I get the impression the secret is out now... Stoke City aren’t here just for the ride.

The club is desperate to make an impact on the Premier League and that wonderful result at Liverpool has sent out all the right messages.

Word is definitely getting around the country that Stoke are not only no pushovers, but can be a genuine problem for teams.

I sense it among our fans as well.

The atmosphere has been great all season, but it maybe that fans were a bit tentative early on.

Not now. I think they are saying ‘hang on, we really do have a chance of doing something this season’.

Chelsea obviously come to the Potteries as hot favourites with all the great players at their disposal.

But I always look for the positives to shorten those odds against you and there are definitely some there.

If you look at Chelsea, there’s no doubt that Ricardo Carvalho and Deco are big losses – and I’m not just clutching at straws when I say that.

Watching Carvalho is like watching a defensive masterclass because he reads the game so well.
He’s up there with the best of them in the world at the moment and so even Chelsea are going to miss a defender of that quality.

Deco is also a big miss because he possesses that cunning and craft that Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack, for all their strengths, don’t quite have.

I watched Wigan Athletic play Chelsea at home earlier in the season and they didn’t half make it difficult by closing them down and working their socks off from start to finish. In the end, Chelsea were grateful to win it thanks to Deco’s early free-kick.

What Wigan also did that day was try to ensure Chelsea’s full-backs were stopped because they’re the ones who give them their width.

Stoke must be brave enough to try to occupy them in their own half to stop them running at our full-backs deep in our half. Luckily, we’ve got two experienced and willing workers in

Liam Lawrence and Rory Delap to try to execute that plan on the right and left.

I’ll be interested to see if Mr Scolari considers Didier Drogba has enough match fitness to throw him in from the start.

He’s one of the best strikers around on his day and would certainly get my vote in a straight fight with Nicolas Anelka.

It’s just a pity that such a big man goes to ground all the time the way he does.

Tony Pulis seems to have two major decisions to make as he must choose between Leon Cort and
Ibrahima Sonko in central defence and Salif Diao and Amdy Faye in central midfield.

I know Leon had an indifferent game against Everton a fortnight ago, but apart from that I don’t think he’s ever really let Tony down and, as a manager, you don’t forget that, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets the verdict.

And with Salif having such a good game up at Liverpool last Saturday, I’d imagine Tony will be tempted to stick with him too.

A clean sheet is a mantra for any team wanting to be successful and so that result at Anfield is a massive shot in the arm going into the Chelsea game.

I also like the noises I hear coming out of the club and the quotes I am reading in interviews with the players.

Reading between the lines, you sense they really mean what they say and truly believe the positive statements they are coming out with.

And so they should.