Week 1-Wednesday Night Football As It Happened (Chelsea v Wigan)

Ful Time
Chelsea 4-2 Reading
Lampard (18)-Pen
Pogrebnyak (25)
Guthrie (29)
Cahill (69)
Torres (81)
Ivanovic (90)


Chelsea GOAL!Chelsea break straight away from the Reading corner and catch The Royals at the wrong end of the pitch with Federici still in the Chelsea half. Eden Hazard makes a simple lay off for Branislav Ivanovic who scores his second in 2 games as the home team seal a very flattering 4-2 victory.


Chelsea 4-2 Reading
Lampard (18)-Pen
Pogrebnyak (25)
Guthrie (29)
Cahill (69)
Torres (81)
Ivanovic (90)

Reading FreekickReading get another freekick, quite central and around 35 yards out. Ian Harte shoots and it deflects behind the Chelsea goal for a corner with Federici coming up for it.

Reading Freekick
With just a few minutes of stoppage time Reading have a free kick in a promising position, sad it's not one of Ian Harte's better efforts and comes to nothing.

Reading Substitution
Reading make their final substitution as Hal Robson-Kanu comes on to replace Garath McCleary as Reading seek a late equaliser.

Chelsea Substitution 
Raul Meireles replaces Juan Mata with around 6 minutes left.

Chelsea GOAL!
We now have controversy. Ashley Cole makes an excellent pass to Juan Mata who instead of shooting lays across a weak cross that runs to fellow Spaniard Fernando Torres who is stood noticeably offside. Torres pops it in and Chelsea re-take the lead. When the Reading team look back over  this they will feel very hard done by.

Chelsea 3-2 Reading
Lampard (18)-Pen
Pogrebnyak (25)
Guthrie (29)
Cahill (69)
Torres (81)

Chelsea Chance
After some Chelsea pressure the ball breaks to Juan Mata who really should hit the target but ends up screw his shot well wide.

Reading Substitution 
Reading make their first change as goal scorer Pavel Pogrebnyak is replaced by by fellow attacker Noel Hunt.

Chelsea GOAL! 
Chelsea finally break through the Reading defence via the unexpected threat of defender Gary Cahill. The shot, taken at a distance, just seemed to slide away from Federici who really should have done better than he did.

Chelsea 2-2 Reading
Lampard (18)-Pen
Pogrebnyak (25)
Guthrie (29)
Cahill (69)

Penalty Appeal
Oscar lays in Torres with an excellent little pass but Torres "shot" goes straight into a Reading defender with Torres appealing for a handball. The referee ignores the plea.

Yellow Card
The referee shows the second yellow card of the match, this one going to goalscorer Pavel Pogrebnyak.

Reading Corner
Reading get their first corner of the second half though it leads to nothing.

Chelsea Shot
Oscar attempts to make an early impact by taking a tame shot at the Reading goal that hardly extends Federici.

Yellow Card
The referee goes to his book for the first time in the match as he shows Reading's Jem Karacan a yellow card.

Chelsea Substitution
Brazilian attacker Oscar comes on to replace Ramires as Chelsea look to add to their attack with the first substitution of the match.

Chelsea Corner
 Chelsea get their first corner of the match after some intense pressure on the Reading defense though, like much of Chelsea's offensive play it comes to nothing.

Chelsea Chance
Chelsea start the second half fast and within minutes get their first chance on the second half as Fernando Torres turns provider and lays off a very nice ball for Branislav Ivanovic who blasts his shot well over the ball.

Half Time Chelsea 1-2 Reading
Chelea's leaky home defense from last season (which conceded 24 goals in 19 games) appears to again be an issue as Reading unexpectedly lead 2-1 going into the half. Despite the fact Chelsea have had a number of chances they simply haven't been able to take them and, the penalty aside, Federici has had an easy game as Chelsea have simply been to wasteful.

Whilst Roberto Di Matteo may feel his men should be in the lead he will be unhappy about their inability to convert chances and will likely have a word or two with his attackers who have let the team down. Whilst their defense has been breached twice the first goal was simply unstoppable and the second was a huge error by Cech who shouldn't have been beaten by the freekick. Chelsea started really well though quickly slowed down and Reading managed to get a foot hold in the game before taking the lead. Chelsea will need to increase the pace if they wish to come back into this. Despite being down Eden Hazard has shined in the first half.

For Reading's Brian McDermott he will just tell his players to continue doing what they are doing, they are neutralising the attack of Chelsea pretty well and even the better Chelsea attacks are coming to nothing as the Royals get a bit of luck here and their. Despite going into the half time team talk as the happier manager McDermott could well feel annoyed that they aren't 3-1 up at the half after Pearce's fantastic chance late in the half. Pogrebnyak looks excellent up front and seems to be a real threat in and around the penalty area though McAnuff looks the biggest threat when he's running at the Chelsea defense and terrifying them with his pace.

Half Time Stats
Shots
Chelsea 8 Reading 5
On Target
Chelsea 4 Reading 3
Corners
Chelsea 0 Reading 3

Chelsea Chance 
Eden Hazard makes an exceptional cross but Fernando Torres fails to get his header on target as another chance goes begging for the European Champions.

Freekick 
Reading get a free kick which is taken by Ian Harte and it just whistle's inches away from the head of an on rushing Alex Pearce who could have doubled Reading's lead with any sort of a touch.

Reading Corner
Reading get their second corner in seconds though again it leads to nothing.

Reading Corner
Reading get their second corner of the game and despite it coming to nothing it was a significantly better corner than the previous one.

Freekick 
Eden Hazard gets fouled to the edge of the Reading penalty area, the good cross is headed over by John Terry and goes out for a Reading goal kick.

Freekick and GOAL!
Chelsea defender John Terry is lucky not to receive a booking as he cynically ends a promising dribble by Reading's Jobi McAnuff. The resulting free kick, taken by Danny Guthrie takes a deflection but ends up going over the line to give Reading a very unexpected lead!

Chelsea 1-2 Reading
Lampard (18)-Pen
Pogrebyan (25)
Guthrie (29)

Reading GOAL!
Russian forward Pavel Pogrebnyak equalises for Reading with an excellent heading from the centre of the penalty area. It came off his head like a rocket.

Chelsea 1-1 Reading
Lampard (18)-Pen
Pogrebnyak (25)

Reading Corner
Reading pick up the first corner of the game, but it's easily taken by Chelsea's Petr Cech who hoists the ball up and Chelsea come close to doubling their lead.

Chelsea Penalty and GOAL!
Eden Hazard gets tripped by Chris Gunter and Chelsea are given their second penalty in successive games. Frank Lampard nets the penalty past Federici who manages to just get a slight finger tip on on the ball.

Chelsea 1-0 Reading
 Lampard (18)-Pen

Chelsea Chance
A Chelsea attack opens up the Reading defense for Ramires but he appears to have too many options before selecting the wrong one leaving Adam Federici with an easy save.

Chelsea Chance
Juan Mata plays through new signing Eden Hazard who tamely hits his shot wide of the Reading Goal as Chelsea open up the Reading defense within 2 minutes.

And we're off!

Our first midweek kick off of the season takes us to Stamford Bridge where European Champion's Chelsea host the recently promoted Reading with both teams looking for a win, which would take them to the top of the league until at least Sunday. As with the Monday night game (Everton v Manchester United) this will be an in depth "As it happened".

Chelsea-
Starting XI- Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Cole, Mikel, Lampard, Ramires, Eden Hazard, Mata, Torres
Subs-Turnbull, Essien, Romeu, Oscar, Meireles, Sturridge, Bertrand.

Reading-
Startin XI-Federici, Gunter, Pearce, Gorkss, Harte, Karacan, McAnuff, Leigertwood, Guthrie, McCleary, Pogrebnyak
Subs- McCarthy, Mariappa, Le Fondre, Hunt, Tabb, Robson-Kanu, Cummings.

Referee-Lee Mason
Kick Off-19:45
Pre Match Odds
Match Odds
Chelsea 1/3
Draw 5/1
Reading 12/1

Over/Under 2.5 Goals
Over 4/7
Under 13/10







A full preview of the match can be read here.

Premier League Week 1-Write up Wigan v Chelsea

Wigan 0-2 Chelsea
The European Champions got their Premier League campaign off in Sunday's early kick off as they traveled up north to face Roberto Martinez's Wigan side. Despite the fact Wigan had survived last season they were relatively lucky and only missed the drop by 7 points whilst having one of the worst defensive records in the Premier League. Whilst Chelsea had "only" managed 64 goals last season it was expected they'd get off to a flying start with Fernando Torres looking to have regained his form with an excellent Euro 2012 (where he won the Golden Boot).

Things got off to a perfect start for Chelsea who need less than 2 minutes to open their scoring for the season as Eden Hazard and Branislav Ivanovic linked together to break the dead lock with Ivanovic finishing the move. Just minutes later Chelsea doubled their lead through a Frank Lampard penalty and it appeared as if Chelsea were going to really tear Wigan a new one whilst filling their boots, in fact it appeared as if Robert Di Matteo's men could even claim top spot above Fulham and Swansea. Sadly for Chelsea, and football fans, the second goal effectively killed the game and Chelsea choose to just hold on to their lead rather than give Wigan the hammering that they appeared to be there for.

Whilst new signing Eden Hazard was the star man for Chelsea, setting up Ivanovic's goal and being fouled for the penalty he seems like the sort of player who, despite being talented won't like the physical part of the English game. The number of times he went down was alarming and whilst some were dives he was also given a hard time. I imagine defenders will be viewing him as a serious target on this showing. Hazard went off with around 30 minutes remaining and was replaced by fellow new boy Oscar who was close to adding a third for the Blues.

Wigan fans should be worried, they have struggled in recent seasons and the way they started this game they will be struggling again. They should however feel very fortunate that Chelsea didn't seem to want to add to their early goals or this could have ended up like a cricket score. Despite losing Wigan did fight back well and actually had more shots and more corners than the visitors with Victor Moses looking very threatening despite some awful service. Wigan fans should be worried, though their team does have some promise as long as Martinez can get them working well as as a team from the opening whistle to the final whistle.

Despite winning 2-0 Chelsea fans should be feeling very annoyed at their team in all honesty. Wigan were really there for the taking and should have been beaten out of sight, though Chelsea's change from offensive minded team in the first 10 minutes to a counter attacking team afterwards really was frustrating. The fans however have to be pleased by the fact Hazard was such a key player and appears to be the sort of player who will have a hand in everything going forward, be it scoring or providing, he did however look a bit lightweight and went down far too easily. The 3 points were the key and they managed to bag them, but they weren't hugely impressive aside from the opening 10 minutes.