ALLEN HAS CROCK AND ROLL BLUES

JOE ALLEN cursed Stoke’s legion of crocked centre-backs and admitted it couldn’t have happened at a worse time than a visit from the champions.

The Potters were missing Ryan Shawcross, Kevin Wimmer and Geoff Cameron, as well as the ineligible Kurt Zouma.

And the makeshift back-three of Glen Johnson, Bruno Martins Indi and Erik Pieters were taken apart by Chelsea’s contain-anddestroy approach.

Four points from an unholy trinity of home games with Arsenal, Manchester United and the Blues is a decent return, and manager Mark Hughes hopes Shawcross and Cameron will be back to face Southampton next weekend.

Midfielder Allen (above) said: “Injuries and suspensions will always have an effect, but it seems to be happening to all our centre-backs.

“You could argue we are overloaded in that position but Chelsea are not the ideal team to come up against when you have issues like that.

“The three home games we have had have been really tough, but I hope next week will be a game where we can be on the front foot more.”