Opposing supporters love to hate winners and no team have revelled in being reviled in recent seasons more than Chelsea, sticking out their waxed chests and their chipped shoulders. Perhaps, though, after a fallow year in the silverware stakes, they are starting to reach out to the neutral; maybe, just maybe, we could learn to love Chelsea a little.

John Terry epitomises Chelsea with his unstinting excellence and his bellicose attitude. Nowhere more than at the Britannia Stadium do you need your leaders to stand tall and show no fear. But when a torrent of mindless abuse rained down on the England captain, after Chelsea had extended their unbeaten league run in the calendar year, Terry displayed some unexpectedly charming public relations skills. He went over to the Stoke City fans with good humour, chatted to them, signed autographs, posed for photographs and then bade farewell by throwing them his jersey. They sang his name as he went.

Chelsea had to dig in and show the pragmatism honed under José Mourinho to manage what Liverpool had failed to do seven days earlier and beat Stoke City, but they did not forget to doff their cap to style along the way. Indeed, the manner in which José Bosingwa scored the opening goal told most of what you need to know about Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Chelsea. The Portugal right back played the ball to Salomon Kalou but, instead of retreating, he bombed on in exhilarating style to chest down Frank Lampard’s deft chip and crash in his first goal for the club.

Scolari likes his full backs to play high up the pitch, which makes for swashbuckling football, especially when they possess the pace and panache of Bosingwa and Ashley Cole, and it adds credence to the notion that Chelsea could yet fulfil Roman Abramovich’s remit to win and to entertain simultaneously. “A lot of full backs in modern football get a lot of time on the ball so they’re vitally important,” Ray Wilkins, Chelsea’s assistant first-team coach, said.

His team had to match Stoke’s remarkable workrate to make their class tell. Didier Drogba, on his first start of the season, looked ring-rusty, which will add to Nicolas Anelka’s conviction that he should be given more opportunity down the middle. After Florent Malouda had thundered a shot that Thomas Sorensen thumped on to the bar, it was Anelka who calmed Stoke’s storm by drilling in the second goal after Leon Cort had made a hash of Bosingwa’s cross.

Stoke had to do without Rory Delap and his 38-metre throwins when he suffered a hamstring injury on the eve of the match, rather wasting Scolari’s three days of preparation to combat him.

With Portsmouth and Tottenham Hotspur up next, Tony Pulis should be able to ensure that his Stoke players do not feel unduly deflated by having failed to score in successive games against the joint leaders. “It’s one point gained,” he said. “And we haven’t got murdered.”

Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Chelsea manager, believes that Robinho, the Brazil forward, was badly influenced in deciding to join Manchester City from Real Madrid in August after failing to secure a move to Stamford Bridge. “It’s a situation that the coach or the club cannot control,” Scolari said. “People around the athletes, sometimes for their own benefit, end up indicating a path that maybe is not the best for them.”

Stoke City (4-4-2): T Sorensen 7 – A Griffin 5, L Cort 5, Abdoulaye Faye 6, D Higginbotham 6 – A Lawrence 5 (sub: M Tonge, 65min 7), S Olofinjana 7, S Diao 5, R Cresswell 6 – D Kitson 4 (sub: R Fuller, 53 5), M Sidibe 5 (sub: Amdy Faye, 81). Substitutes not used: S Simonsen, G Whelan, T Soares, I Sonko. Booked: Griffin, Cresswell. Next: Portsmouth (a).

Chelsea (4-1-4-1): P Cech 7 – J Bosingwa 8, Alex 5, J Terry 6, A Cole 7 – J O Mikel 7 – S Kalou 5 (sub: N Anelka, 46 6), M Ballack 6 (sub: P Ferreira, 90), F Lampard 7, F Malouda 6 – D Drogba 5 (sub: J Belletti, 73). Substitutes not used: Hilário, B Ivanovic, W Bridge, S Sinclair. Booked: Malouda. Next: Aston Villa (h).

Referee M Atkinson Attendance 27,500