Mark Hughes says Stoke deserved to beat Chelsea after 1-1 draw

By Gerard Brand

Saturday 5 March 2016 18:15, UK

Mark Hughes felt his Stoke side deserved a win after drawing 1-1 at Chelsea on Saturday in the Premier League.

Mame Biram Diouf's late header earned Stoke a point after Bertrand Traore had given the hosts a first-half lead, a result which leaves Stoke in the chase for a top-six finish.

But Hughes, who saw his side create the majority of chances at Stamford Bridge, feels the Potters deserved all three points.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Hughes said: "I don't think we got what we deserved anyway with the draw, I thought we deserved the win today, I thought we were excellent.

"For an away team to come and put in the performance we did at Stamford Bridge, our third game in a week as well, they had a bigger rest than us playing Tuesday and us playing Wednesday.

"It was a real strong performance for us, a lot of intense and good intelligent play. We broke quickly and kept the ball for good periods. That's arguably one of the best performances from one of my sides coming to Chelsea."

Diouf's equaliser came with five minutes remaining after the striker had missed two chances in the first half, but Stoke were preparing to bring the 28-year-old off just before he found the net.

"You look at those things and think thank goodness we didn't do it five minutes earlier," said Hughes. "He put a really great shift in for us, and thankfully the ball dropped for him.

"He was excellent today, and he was just tiring so we thought we'd make a change, but thankfully he scored before he came off."

Stoke have won three and drawn one since taking a mid-season break to Dubai, and Hughes admits the warm weather training did his team the world of good.

"We've come back [from the trip to Dubai] and won three games, come to Chelsea and got a draw so it must have worked.

"We continue to push the envelope and try to get better and try to progress every year and today was another step for us."