Closed Chelsea 1 - 0 Stoke City

[Sheva. 5,373]

'It's the first time we have tried Mata, Hazard and Oscar together and it certainly needs more work and practice to be able to integrate them into our system,'

'But I thought today it worked very well. It's a question of time, practice and them knowing each other better.

'But I think it's great to have these players with great technical ability who are good in small spaces, because every team who come to Stamford Bridge defend very deep with a lot of men so there's not much space.' - RDM.

[dumps 284]

Just watched the highlights and Torres wasn't as bad as the majority of you are saying! yes he could have done a lot better, but form what you guys have said i was expercting to see him laying on the floor frothing at the mouth for 90mins. he got in to good positions, should have done better with a couple of chances. this was one of the worst games ive seen him play this season, but he wasnt as bad as you have all said.

Ww may have had few shots on target, but he had a lot of attacking dominance, and a fair few attempts. Hazard, Mata and Oscar looked good. and exciting. Oscar was superb, very good at defensive side of it as well, my man of the match. the only problem is we were a bit narrow, which isnt all that a bad thing, but Stokes defence is pretty solid and if we played a lot wider, we could have opened them up.

Im satisfied with this performance. I expect to see a similar line up Vs Arsenal. Terry would probably come in for Luiz which would be decent.

Will be very interesting to see the line up and tactics in the wolves game - should be an experimental kind of game because its most likely bottom of our priority list and could result in a bit of a change in RDMs approach. depending on how it goes.

EDIT: please tell me someone else saw the chelsea ball boy cheering in the stoke players face when Cole scored.... brilliant. thatll be a Soccer AM 3rd eye next week

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Ww may have had few shots on target, but he had a lot of attacking dominance, and a fair few attempts. Hazard, Mata and Oscar looked good. and exciting. Oscar was superb, very good at defensive side of it as well, my man of the match. the only problem is we were a bit narrow, which isnt all that a bad thing, but Stokes defence is pretty solid and if we played a lot wider, we could have opened them up.

EDIT: please tell me someone else saw the chelsea ball boy cheering in the stoke players face when Cole scored.... brilliant. thatll be a Soccer AM 3rd eye next week

I saw the ball boy pumping his fist. It was tremendous. I don't understand what people are saying when they talk about attacking dominance. We had 60% of the possession and a lot of it inside Stoke's half, but it was mostly empty possession where we passed the ball around the midfield. What was our second best chance to score? Torres chesting a ball down perfectly (which he did) and turning and firing (which he didn't do)? Oscar shooting wide from outside the box? Most of our shots came from long and never troubled the keeper. We really created one good scoring opportunity against what is a very weak team away from home (The 4th worst away team last season, the 3rd worst away team two years ago). We played well in spots and we won which is really what matters, so I'm always happy about that, but count me as someone who doesn't understand the extreme enthusiasm for the way we played. .

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

i know oscar is every1's favourite right now but i just feel mata-hazard-oscar just cant play together

That's what they once said about Xavi and Iniesta. That's what they also said about the Spanish national teams' entire attacking lineup. They will gel together after some time. They should start out playing together against smaller sides and when they click, they can play against the big sides.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

Just watched the highlights and Torres wasn't as bad as the majority of you are saying! yes he could have done a lot better, but form what you guys have said i was expercting to see him laying on the floor frothing at the mouth for 90mins. he got in to good positions, should have done better with a couple of chances. this was one of the worst games ive seen him play this season, but he wasnt as bad as you have all said.

He missed his only chance of the game. A good striker would have put that away. My patience for him is all but gone. We seem to have made an enormous and fatal mistake by not buying a top quality striker. Torres needs to be dropped before long or else our league form will suffer from his garbage performances. Sturridge and Moses will give us more directness and penetration.

Now granted his 2nd against Juve was superb, but from what I've just seen on the MOTD clips, Oscar's shooting seemed average at best today..

Then perhaps watch the game and not the highlights......

[blueblood22 50]

I think we can take a lot of positive stuff from this match

first of all what we all talking about just happened oscar mata hazard all play together and rami playing as a cm finally!! so... rami was great! all the 3 up front didn't play so great together but it's there first time don't forget it!!

it will only get better and better and we need to put the faith on tham

let's hope that RDM will lose a little faith from torres and give sturridge some chances

another big positive thing from this match is moses... was so great doing defense and attack absolutely great all around!!!

my dream 11 is what we saw today with oriol in and mikel out azpi in iva out and torres out sturridge in o.k and maybe bertrand in and ashly out but all the season we said why he don't open with this or this and today for me i was glad with the first 11 and glad about the sub as well. although i think lampard should get in earlier but whatever...

vary hard match you all comparing us with city all the time so there you go city lost points against tham we didn't and yes i know we play at home and thay didn't but still

let's all hope fot a lot of new faces against wolves and a great game from tham!!

[DavidLuizFan 23]

Alright, so it's frustrating that we didn't put more goals in, but end of the day we broke through Stoke's defence and came away with the 3 points. I didn't get a chance to watch the match because of work, but I'm hearing that we were the better side and dominated. I think people are forgetting that Stoke's defence is regarded as one of the hardest defence lines to break. I mean, no they aren't a TOP team, but that is still a factor when playing them. 3 points and top of the table. As for Torres, meh, standard Torres.

[Henrique 9,133]

2 people belive Torres was the motm.

[Spike 12,049]

2 people belive Torres was the motm.

There is no such thing as a wrong opinion. However there is such a thing as having the wrong reasons for and opinion.

I believe Torres achieved two things against Stoke. His first touch from Mata's chip was brilliant (the volley less so) and his through ball to Mikel was very nice.

[nachikethas 1,149]

i feel guilty on being top of the league.

[Beigl 1,387]

Well played yesterday from Chelsea,Juan Mata and Cahill impressed my a lot!

[BleedsBlue 1,549]

At times we were simply just fantastic.We just passed too many times in the box and delayed taking shots on goal.Sometimes its vital to have a have a player like Danny,who will try to convert every half chance.

[LayZ 201]

According to the commentators, 3 out of the 4 goals Stoke had conceded this season prior to the Chelsea match had been from Set Pieces, so on one hand we did well to score from open play, and on the other failing to convert any one of our 13 corners given their record is a little alarming...maybe we are focusing a little too much of our energies on attacking movements in training? Sorry to speculate, but could well be...ability to score from set pieces is always handy...

Having said that apparently 3 of the 4 goals Stoke have scored this season have come from Set Pieces, so we did well in defending them, although Walters cam desperately close..

[blue_swaggin_96 96]

anybody tell me chelsea can't further with RDM... i always respon

fuck off were european champions..

[Strike 6,981]

work in progress but we got the 3 points. good sweeping counter attack for the goal but the lack of penetration is worrying. Moses should start against arsenal. he is much more direct and provides genuine width. defensively sound as well

[blue_swaggin_96 96]

According to the commentators, 3 out of the 4 goals Stoke had conceded this season prior to the Chelsea match had been from Set Pieces, so on one hand we did well to score from open play, and on the other failing to convert any one of our 13 corners given their record is a little alarming...maybe we are focusing a little too much of our energies on attacking movements in training? Sorry to speculate, but could well be...ability to score from set pieces is always handy...

Having said that apparently 3 of the 4 goals Stoke have scored this season have come from Set Pieces, so we did well in defending them, although Walters cam desperately close..

i still think we have the best defense in europe, time will tell if this short passing chelsea will be successful!

glad were keeping up to the top table, best scenerio for us will be all around loss to close rivals.

im hoping for a city lost!

ctid

[didierforever 7,349]

ma

That's what they once said about Xavi and Iniesta. That's what they also said about the Spanish national teams' entire attacking lineup. They will gel together after some time. They should start out playing together against smaller sides and when they click, they can play against the big sides.

makes sense. hope u r right but in xavi-iniesta case u forgettin a very big x-factor which we ll never have, messi. spain's got alonso n busquets as their dms where as we got mikel. also with no disrespect to any of the 3 players, xavi n iniesta are a class apart and comparision with them is not fair.

still these 3 together will work against small teams where they definitely will have to park the bus to stop us but teams who can counter well would stretch us quite easily.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

ma

makes sense. hope u r right but in xavi-iniesta case u forgettin a very big x-factor which we ll never have, messi. spain's got alonso n busquets as their dms where as we got mikel. also with no disrespect to any of the 3 players, xavi n iniesta are a class apart and comparision with them is not fair.

still these 3 together will work against small teams where they definitely will have to park the bus to stop us but teams who can counter well would stretch us quite easily.

You're forgetting that Xavi and Iniesta were not always this great. There was a time when they were merely 'Very Good'. I think we all know Hazard, Oscar and Mata can become true World Class players in time. Its stupid to judge them off one game. They actually played pretty well but it just didn't work out for them when trying to score a goal.