Chelsea 4-2 Reading
In our first midweek kick of the season European Champions Chelsea defeated the newly promoted Reading by a score of 4-2. Despite the very flattering scoreline for the Blues they should feel themselves very lucky against a Reading side who will feel they deserved at least point from the match.
The match started promisingly for Chelsea who created a number of early chances through Eden Hazard and Juan Mata though they failed to convert as their attacks started to look wasteful. The deadlock was finally broken after Eden Hazard was fouled inside the penalty and for the second successive match Frank Lampard converted from the penalty spot as Chelsea took the lead in the 18th minute.
After taking the lead it would have been fair to have expected Chelsea to continue to attack and create chances though instead the goal seemed to kick start the Reading team who looked significantly brighter after the Chelsea goal. The Chelsea pace dropped and Reading got more and more of the ball, whilst they didn't really look threatening they were now playing their way into the game. Surprisingly Reading equalised as Russian hitman Pavel Pogrebnyak scored a thunderous header that gave Cech absolutely no chance.
Having surprisingly equalised no one would have given Reading, who were 12/1 outsiders to win the match, a chance to take the lead but that was exactly what they did as a Danny Guthrie freekick was spilled into the Chelsea goal by Petr Cech. It was an embarrassing blunder for Cech who already had bad memories of Reading after suffering a serious injury against Reading a few years back. Just before half time it looked as if things were going to go from bad to worse for Chelsea as an Ian Harte freekick needed just a touch to put it in the net, though Alex Pearce failed to get the necessary touch.
Despite going into half time 2-1 down it was expected that Chelsea had the quality and class to turn the game around and they set off the second half like a train on fire as they forced the Reading defense into action time and time again. Despite the pressure that Chelsea were putting the Reading defense under a goal didn't look like coming until a Gary Cahill strike, from well outside the penalty area, just evaded Adam Federici in the Reading goal as. The Cahill strike, whilst solid, should have been saved though, for the second game in a row Federici essentially gifted a goal to the opposition for Chelsea's equaliser.
With 10 minutes of the match left we say games major talking point. Chelsea's left back Ashley Cole played a sensational ball to Juan Mata and it looked almost certain that Mata would drill the ball past Federici, instead however he played a short cross to Fernando Torres who was stood in a clearly offside position. Torres, did what all strikers do and put the ball in the net, almost sheepishly as if he expected the goal to be disallowed, for some reason however the linesman failed to raise his flag and the goal stood. This caused Reading to chase the game and deep into extra time they managed to earn a corner with Federici coming up to try and add to the Reading attack. The corner failed to amount to anything and instead Chelsea quickly broke before Eden Hazard layed off Branislav Ivanovic who scored his second in as many games, to secure a very, very flattering 4-2 win for Chelsea.
Throughout the game Eden Hazard stood out as the man of the match pulling the strings for Chelsea's attack and whilst he made have failed to open his scoring account he was involved in pretty much everything Chelsea did well. At the other end of the pitch John Terry was given a real nightmare by Jobi McAnuff who took advantage of Terry's lack of pace. Roberto Di Matteo's men may have secured all 3 points and may have moved to the top of the Premier League however he will not be happy about this performance as his team had real issues breaking through the Reading defense and Fernando Torres again looked incredibly poor. Whilst Hazard and Ivanovic may have been excellent and Ashley Cole was influential Di Matteo will need to hope that the defensive woes, shown by Terry and by Cech were just one offs or his team could struggle to mount a serious challenge. Having conceded 24 goals at home last year Di Matteo will hope that his defense are more solid this year, though on this showing it's debatable.
Brian McDermott has every reason to be proud of his men who all played out of their skin and genuinely deserved to have picked up a point, which they likely would have done had the linesman have seen Torres standing offside. Whilst he should worry about Federici who, for the second game running, has given up an easy goal, he should look at the positives which saw them holding their own against a very strong Chelsea team. Pogrebnyak looks the real deal and his headed goal was fantastic whilst Ian Harte continues to be a threat from freekicks and Jobi McAnuff looks like a really special player, all positives for Reading. Also, whilst the scoreline may be a rather ugly on paper everyone who saw the match will agree that it did flatter Chelsea who seriously struggled to break through the very sturdy Reading defence. On this performance Reading fans should relax, their team looked much improved from the one that drew 1-1 at home against Stoke on Saturday.
Notes-
This is the highest scoring game of the season so far with 6 goals.
For the second successive game Frank Lampard has scored from the spot whilst Branisla Ivanovic has also netted.
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