Di Matteo was once again impressed by the performance of Eden Hazard — signed this summer for £32 million from Lille. And he believes the Belgian is already striking up an effective partnership with fellow playmaker Juan Mata after just two games of the new Premier League season.
Hazard provided two more assists in the 4-2 defeat of Reading to add to the two he provided at Wigan.
That has helped the Blues claim maximum points from their opening two games — but the way they allowed Reading back into the game highlighted the defensive work that still needs to be done as Di Matteo attempts to introduce Hazard, Oscar and Marko Marin into his side.
“The balance was always going to be the key,” said Di Matteo. “Everyone wants to see a lot of flair play, but to win games you need a good balance. I would like to think we are defensively quite good. We had a clean sheet on the first day. Tonight Reading did well to score, but we’ve scored six goals in two games. We’ll have to try and be solid.”
Hazard won the penalty that allowed Frank Lampard to open the scoring but reading replied through Pavel Pogrebnyak and Danny Guthrie before Gary Cahill brought Chelsea back level.
Then Torres scored from an offside position nine minutes from time and Branislav Ivanovic made it four when Reading keeper Adam Federici went up for a late header.
Reading manager Brian McDermott was clearly not impressed. “I’m gutted the linesman’s got that decision wrong on the third goal. He was offside and it was not a good night for him. My gut feeling was that it was offside, and it was clearly offside.
“It’s just a shame it was for such a crucial goal because we would definitely have got a point. I’m really disappointed for the players.”
Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2012.
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