2 matches. 6 points. 5 goals scored. Leading Man Utd by 4 points. What a fantastic start to the season! When BBC’s Lawro predicted that we would win and Man Utd will draw, I not only wished it would happen but also started expecting it. After a listless first half, we played to our potential in the second half, we drove Reading out of the game with some brilliant stuff. Looking back at the hype we created by comparing Chelsea’s and Man Utd’s pre-season games, it all seems so funny now.

The team that played was Cech, Ferreira (Pizarro 46), Ben Haim, Carvalho (Johnson 31), Ashley Cole, Wright-Phillips, Sidwell (Obi 46), Lampard, Malouda, Drogba, Kalou. Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Joe Cole. Not sure why Sheva was not even on the bench.

The first half was dominated by Reading. They played with lots of ‘home-fixture’ confidence and put Chelsea under pressure each time we had the ball. We could not string even few passes together and hardly made any decent attack in the first half. Reading took a very deserved lead though with a freaky goal, courtesy a poor but rare goalkeeping error by Cech. Immediately after that goal, Ricardo injured himself and had to be replaced with Johnson. Reading were unlucky not go 2-0 up but Chelsea reacted neither for the Reading goal nor for their closer chances for doubling the lead. At half time whistle, it did look very gloomy but I have always believed in the effects of Jose’s half time talks and tactics.

Having used one sub in the first half, at half time, Jose made a big gamble by using the other two subs too bringing on Mikel for Sidwell and Pizarro for Ferreira. The other bigger gamble was to play with three defenders only - Ben Haim, Johnson and Cole - against a stronger looking home team. Real gamble I’d say. Very typical vintage Jose. When we started the second half, I felt as if we’ve made 11 substitutions. We were a completely different team in the second half. It took all of 5 minutes in the second half, to equalise and to take a lead. Full credit to Jose, in the way he used his subs, changed his tactics and also for having developed a group who would respond to such situations positively. After we took the lead, SWP started playing as the right back and was surprisingly impressive there too. Having just outsmarted Sir Alex, Steve Coppell was devastated by an extremely dominant Chelsea in the second half.

I wonder if Frank Lampard is reading this blog. Exactly a day after the post on his form, he comes up with this super frank goal. This was not one of his better matches, he still lost the ball and all that but this goal was a beauty. In a swift link up play Drogba heads it to the space in front of Lampard and he controls the ball with his head and thighs and finishes superbly with nano seconds before Hahnemann makes contact. Within a couple of minutes from the first goal, Drogba does a solo effort to keep the ball from 3 to 4 defenders and does a 1-2 with Kalou, who sets it up for Drogba to blast an inswinging volley to hit the net.

The second half play by Chelsea is our new approach to the game. It was sheer joy to watch Malouda, Drogba, SWP, Lampard and Mikel linking up so well. We could have easily scored 4 goals but some kind of complacency or lethargy crept in. There was also a touch of arrogance in the way we toyed around with Reading midfielders and defenders. After we took the lead, we were in complete command of the game and it was played as we dictated. Believe me, Chelsea had 72% possession in the match and were only the traveling team in a diffcult Madejski stadium.

After the match Jose said:

I asked the players if somebody was feeling a bit weak or feeling a little bit of an injury because I wanted to make two changes and I wanted to finish the game with 11 men,’ he began. They told me yes, everybody was fine and fit and ready to go. We made the changes, I explained the objective of the changes, I explained the good qualities of the changes and the bad qualities. I prepared them for the difficult things and I pushed them to try to use the good things.

The players were brave. They were brave to accept some difficult situations because it is not easy for Shaun to play right-back, it is not easy for Glen Johnson to play central defender and it is not easy for Ben-Haim after two months at Chelsea to lead his defence. It is not easy for Mikel to play alone in the front of midfield and not easy for attacking players to have defensive tasks. The players deserve a lot of credit. When the game was 2-1, I could make the game more defensive with Malouda in the centre of the midfield but I thought with this positive wave, we can score the third.

I know it is a big gamble but if one day it doesn’t work, like in my first season it didn’t work at Newcastle, and I am criticised, I accept that but I sleep well because I tried. The worse thing in life is when you don’t try. It is a message I want to give to my kids all the time - you have to try. If you fail, you fail but you have to try.

See, Jose wants the third goal. Now with the current set of players, that’s the mood at the Chelsea camp. We want to score more and more and more.

The big difference in the second half was the introduction of Mikel. He brought so much stability in our midfield that I was no longer worried about Reading’s advances. Mikel was solid as ever, no-nonsense as ever and I dont know why he has to play only 45 minutes, if he can make such a strong impact. The other player who deserves huge credit is SWP. He seems to be a completely transformed guy this season. I wish he has the consistency in his game, that can give a run for Joe Cole’s money. SWP played superbly, made good dribbles, kept possession and most importantly, made some correct decisions with respec to choice of passes and timing and placement of crosses. Malouda and Pizarro are fast becoming (or already become) the crowd favourites for Chelsea. They seem very very dangerous and look like they could score/assist any moment. The inimitable Drogba did what he is best at. Kalou still needs to work on the final ball. Roman watching Glen Johnson play is good enough for Jose to get those extra millions (!) to sign Alves.

Staying with Daniel Alves’ news, his agent Geronimo Suarez says:

I am confident in the Chelsea directors, I understand Chelsea is not easy to be driven but let’s say at least we are 80-90% confident that we can close the agreement. He is determined to go there (Chelsea). He has spoken in these terms a lot of times, he has said to the press here in Seville that he is 100% determined to go Chelsea. He asked for the Seville club to close the agreement with Chelsea as soon as possible. These are his own words. We expected yesterday afternoon to be the perfect day to close the agreement but it didn’t arrive so it may be two or three days or a maximum of one week before both clubs must find a solution.

See this first page at The Telegraph website as at 12:00 midnight in the football news page, there is absolutely no mention about Chelsea’s win over Reading. Isn’t this strange? Their correspondents and editors don’t like Chelsea or something?

Elsewhere, Man Utd were once again held to a draw, this time by Portsmouth. If losing Rooney was not bad enough for the Reds, Cristiano Ronaldo got sent off for unwarranted headbutting. He would be missing the next three matches, which are against Man City, Tottenham and Sunderland. Fergie said this about Ronaldo’s sending off:

Steve Bennett has sent him off before, and I think he took great delight in sending him off too.

I’m curious about what actions would FA take for saying so.

If Chelsea manages to beat Liverpool on Sunday, that will send out a huge warning to all and also would make it very difficult for other teams to catch up with Chelsea. Now, how about the resurgent Man City beating the Reds at home and Chelsea picking up three points at Anfield. A seven point gap after 3 games? God, I’m fainting!

[tags]Chelsea, Reading, Madejski Stadium, Cech, Drogba, Lampard, Jose Mourinho, Steve Coppell, Premier League[/tags]

Related links:
Official Chelsea FC website report
BBC Sports report
The Telegraph’s LATE report
The TimesOnline report
The Chelseablog report