Chelsea 2-1 Queen's Park Rangers: Ice-cool Hazard spares Chelsea blushes

Oscar opened the scoring with a sublime curling shot with the outside of his foot, before Charlie Austin capitalised on some sloppy Chelsea defending midway through the second-half to drag Rangers back into contention. It wasn't to be though, as the league leaders stole the points with Eden Hazard drawing a foul, before scoring the resulting penalty to ensure that Chelsea made this their best ever start to a Premier League season.

Chelsea started the game with high tempo and had an astonishing five corners in the first five minutes, but they were all cleared. The first real chance of the afternoon fell to Oscar, after a smart backheel from Diego Costa, the Brazilian hit a weak shot just wide of the near post.

The 23-year-old midfielder was not to be denied however and just after the half-hour mark, his effortless running was rewarded and in some style too. After the graceful Cesc Fabregas played him in on the right, behind the straying defence, Oscar hit a wonderful outside-the-foot shot first-time, which curled across Rob Green and flew into the bottom corner.

Charlie Austin had the chance to equalise, after a good cross from Junior Hoilett on the left-wing, but Filipe Luis and John Terry crowded out the striker and he could only head well over the bar.

Luis had a great chance to double the lead for the Blues, just 10 minutes into the second-half, when the Brazilian left-back played a neat one-two with former Atletico Madrid team-mate Costa, but the defender's left-footed shot was just a tad too high.

With Chelsea dominating the second-half, Harry Redknapp, QPR manager, introduced Bobby Zamora into the fray to partner Charlie Austin up front and his tactics were instantly rewarded. Following a rapid Rangers break, Zamora's blocked shot fell to Leroy Fer and the Dutchman's volley was mishit and looked to be covered by Thibaut Courtois in the Chelsea goal, but Charlie Austin got a touch on the volley and turned it past the wrong-footed Belgian goalkeeper to bring the scores level.

QPR almost took a spectacular lead straight away when Sandro tried his luck from distance, only for it to be deflected millimetres wide of the post by Cesc Fabregas.

Jose Mourinho took drastic measures as he looked to grab the vital win and brought on the in-form Didier Drogba for Willian, to play alongside Diego Costa, switching to a 4-4-2 formation in the process. Chelsea's high-intensity pressure was rewarded with 15 minutes to go as Eden Hazard went on a magically trademark run and was subsequently brought down on the edge of the box by Eduardo Vargas. The Belgian scored his 17th Premier League penalty and extended his impressive record of never missing one in the top flight for Chelsea.

The only real chance after that fell to John Terry. The skipper had a powerful header from a Fabregas corner, but Robert Green somehow kept it out with a wonderful save.

The performance wasn't as efficient as we've come to expect from the Blues so far this season, but Jose Mourinho won't care, as it's another three points. The title-favourites now sit in a promising position, four points clear at the top, while nine clear of third-placed Manchester City, who host local rivals Manchester United tomorrow night.

Queen's Park Rangers suffer another defeat and and stay in 19th place, in what is proving to be an extremely difficult start to the season for the Loftus Road outfit.