After enduring another nightmarish afternoon at the hands of West Ham at the weekend, Chelsea must have been dreading a Tuesday night visit to Stoke.
The Britannia Stadium is never the ideal venue to bounce back after a disappointing result, even if the home side entered the Capital One Cup tie having also lost at the weekend - at home to Watford.
Having controlled the first half, Chelsea fell behind to a terrific strike from Jonathan Walters seven minutes after the break.
Inevitably, the Twitter vultures were soon circling Jose Mourinho.
https://twitter.com/CapgunTom/status/659112114360078337
A sentiment echoed by the Stoke fans...
https://twitter.com/kpsundayworld/status/659112201039519745
Regardless of what seemed like another defeat, not everyone was happy with the idea of Mourinho getting the sack.
https://twitter.com/DannySaville/status/659112727214956544
Others suggested reasons as to why Chelsea were in yet another concerning position.
https://twitter.com/Towbaey/status/659112841526444032
But surely Chelsea weren't going to lose this in full time, were they?
https://twitter.com/OptaJoe/status/659112906466992128
Of course they weren't...
https://twitter.com/garylineker/status/659121399110438916
Loic Remy's equaliser was followed by a Phil Bardsley red card. Extra time against ten men would surely see the holders advance.
But after half an hour, the scores remained tied. To penalties it went, and after nine were converted up stepped the reigning PFA Player of the Year to take it to sudden death...
https://twitter.com/stokecity/status/659133988821446657
https://twitter.com/chelseafc/status/659133962514800641
And after recently being dropped by Mourinho, the significance of Hazard's crucial miss wasn't lost on everyone.
https://twitter.com/carefreedaily/status/659134721851551744
With the pressure already heaped on Jose Mourinho following the disastrous start to Chelsea's title defence campaign, speculation over how long he'll be sticking around isn't going to go away after this result.
https://twitter.com/RafaelH117/status/659111768216743936
