Arsene Wenger’s sidel were well beaten by Championship side Wednesday and also lost Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott to injury in the first half.
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Penalty shootouts also decided the evening’s other two ties with Everton beating Norwich 4-3 following a 1-1 draw at Goodison Park, and Hull beating Leicester 5-4 after another 1-1 stalemate.
Chelsea had no planned news conference before the League Cup match, but Stoke City manager Mark Hughes said believes the time is right to hit the Blues where it is hurting them most.
The one time Wildsmith was called into action, he superbly turned Per Mertesacker’s header over the bar as Wednesday saw out a famous win – a ninth game in all competitions without defeat and a second successive Premier League scalp following a third-round victory at Newcastle. But Mourinho must balance pursuit of victory with the need to avoid over-exerting his players amid a sequence of six games in 19 days that continues on Saturday with a home match against Liverpool.
“It’s hard. It’s more hard when you play bad & lose than play well and lose”.
“We were not at the level that is requested to play a team of the quality of Sheffield Wednesday”, the Frenchman told reporters after the match.
Swansea City’s players watched on from the comfort of their sofas as Saturday’s illustrious opponents Arsenal were embarrassed 3-0 by Sheffield Wednesday and suffered two more key injuries to add to those they were already carrying. “They put in a great performance, very resoloute, very dynamic and so they deserve their win tonight”, Wenger said, as quoted on Arsenal’s official site.
“For me, it would be a fantastic situation if the players are against me – I could say we don’t have results because the players are against me”. It was another Portuguese, Lucas João, who got the second goal and even Setúbal born José Semedo got in on the act when he came on as a second-half substitute.
“Honestly, do you think they are not with me?”
There was to be no solace for a reasonably strong Chelsea side, whose miserable season dragged on as they could not find a victor against Stoke despite playing against 10 men for all of extra time. Two of the goals were from set-pieces.
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Stoke scored all of their spot-kicks, Eden Hazard missing the final penalty when his effort was kept out by keeper Jack Butland.
