FINAL WHISTLE THOUGHTS: FINISHING STRONGLY

Roberto Di Matteo felt his side were worthy of all three points despite a prolonged scare from an impressive Reading side at Stamford Bridge.

We took an early lead through a Frank Lampard penalty after Eden Hazard was fouled inside the box, but the Royals hit back quickly with two goals in five minutes to take an unlikely lead, only for the Blues to regroup in the second half as Gary Cahill equalised, Fernando Torres equalised and Branislav Ivanovic swept home a killer fourth in injury time.

On his side’s performance

‘I think we are very pleased with six points after two games. I was very happy with the team performance for long periods of the game. We lost our flow after Reading scored their equaliser and second goal, but apart from that, very good, and we finished very strongly again.

‘Keeping in mind that we’ve played a game more than other teams, for us it’s good we’ve won our two opening games. Wigan away and this game against a promoted team was a tough game, as you could see tonight, and credit to Reading.

‘The way we started the game was very enjoyable. Our crowd went a bit quiet when Reading equalised but again at the end they pushed us on and showed how good they are.

‘I don’t know if we will stay at the top but we are taking it game by game and will enjoy tonight’s victory. Then tomorrow morning we will think about the next game.’

On our third goal, which looked offside

‘I haven’t seen it yet. I looked straight away at the linesman and he didn’t look in any doubt, so I cannot comment.’

On defensive weaknesses

‘The second goal was just a mistake and the first was a great goal. The defender was close to him but he got the header and it was a great goal.

‘We were very offensive in the second half and lost our balance a bit but had to take the risk.

‘I would like to think we are defensively quite good, we had a clean sheet on the first day, reading did well tonight but we’ve scored six goals in two games. We have to try and be solid to win more games.’

On David Luiz’s fitness

‘We expect David Luiz to be available for Saturday, it’s a minor knee issue.’

On Eden Hazard, who once again showed his creativity

‘He certainly had an impact on our team, and with Juan Mata as well he linked up very well. He is finding his feet very quickly.’

Reading manager Brian McDermott was pleased by his side’s performance, and admitted he was upset that our third goal was allowed to stand.

‘We didn’t deserve to lose the game. I’m gutted, the linesman has got the decision wrong for the third goal. My gut feeling was it was offside at the time, and it was clearly offside which is disappointing. It’s unfortunate.’

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