You would have forgiven Reading for feeling a little apprehensive coming into their second league game as a newly promoted side. Chelsea have won the Premier League, two FA Cups, and the Champions League while The Royals have been playing second tier football, and the Blue's spending in the summer has been lavish. And to make matters worse, Reading have failed to beat Chelsea in a league game for 82 years.
At the start of the game it looked like this apprehension were justified as the home side dominated the early stages of the match. Chelsea pressed from the kick off and Fernando Torres made a couple of dangerous early incursions into the visitor’s box. This early pressure paid off in the 18th minute when Eden Hazard’s nifty footwork proved was too much for the visitors defence. Chris Gunter made a late challenge on the Belgium midfielder inside the penalty area, resulting in a spot kick. It was the second time in two Premier League games that Hazard had forced a penalty, which was once again converted by Frank Lampard.
Chelsea looked comfortably in the driving seat and held possession well. But instead of being disillusioned by this early setback, Brian McDermott’s men kept their heads up and looked for a time to strike. This awareness was rewarded in the 25th minute when Garath McCleary’s brilliant cross was met by the head of Pavel Pogrebnyak, beating Petr Cech and putting Reading level. The goal was against the run of play and seemed to come as a surprise for many of the Chelsea players and fans.
The visitor’s goal gave Reading a sense of momentum and they started playing dangerous, attacking football. This forced John Terry to make a rash tackle on Jobi McAnuff, resulting in a Reading costless kick just outside the box. Terry was made to pay for his mistake when Petr Cech spilled Dannie Guthrie’s costless kick and deflected the ball into his own net.
Chelsea had a chance to pull the score level again at the end of the first half when Hazard found Torres in the box with a cross, but the strike'rs header went wide.
Roberto Di Matteo clearly had strong words with his team during half-time because the home side dominated the game in the second half. However Reading were incredibly well organised in defense, often sitting ten men behind the ball, and the Chelsea attackers struggled to find a way through. It took a thumping strike from Gay Cahill in the 69th minute for Chelsea to finally equalise. The goal was partly partly the fault of keeper Adam Federici, who could have done better to save the shot, but the Chelsea players didn't care as they hugged Cahill in celebration.
The next goal Federici could do nothing about. After some great build up play from Chelsea involving most of their midfield, Ashley Cole found himself in acres of space on the left hand side of the box. The left-back passed across Reading's goal and Torres easily slotted the ball in. Some of the Reading players appealed for offside but the linesman’s flag stayed down.
Once again on the back foot, Reading desperately tried for an equaliser. They won a corner in the final minute of injury time, which even Federici came up for. However the ball fell to the feet of Chelsea and the Reading keeper was stranded at the wrong end of the pitch. Hazard belted towards the goal and unselfishly passed to Ivanovic, who made it 4-2.
It was a perhaps an unfair score line for Reading who worked brilliantly throughout the game, especially in the first half. However a commanding second half display from the reigning European Champions, makes it two wins out of two for Di Matteo’s men this season.