At this early stage of season Roberto Di Matteo was not drawn into talk of title credentials, but he was clearly satisfied with how his team had matched up with and defeated an Arsenal side he has previously labelled genuine challengers.
The Italian decided to retain the midfield that had started the win against Stoke, meaning midfield places for Oscar, Eden Hazard and Juan Mata, who drew special praise after the two goals came from his set-piece deliveries, one volleyed in by Fernando Torres and the other hitting the net directly.
On the goalscorers
‘Mata seems to be back in very good shape having had that little break we gave him,’ said Di Matteo. ‘Since then he has been very good.
‘Torres was excellent today. He scored a great goal and an important goal and his all-round play was excellent. He is a team player, he really works hard and chases the defenders down and was always a threat. I am always happy with him because even if he does not score he makes assists and we need players like that.’
On the approach to playing Arsenal away
‘I am very pleased with the performance and the consequence is we won deservedly. We played against a very good team and we came with the intention of taking the initiative and we did not allow Arsenal to get into any rhythm.
‘We have a lot of work to do to improve as we have not been together for much time and that shows at times. It is a matter of working on the training ground and trying to improve.
‘The way we played away at the Emirates gives the team belief that we can play differently as we try to improve and change our style a little bit from last season.
‘We have had a good start to the season and we can build on that, but we know how much work we still have to do to integrate our new players and have them understand the system we want to play.’
On selecting John Terry who after the final whistle gave his boots to a young Chelsea fan
‘It was the right choice to play John, he showed leadership and what a good defender he is.
‘There is always a lot of negative talk about him but he does a lot of good work as well and he gives a lot of boots away to kids. He does a lot of positive stuff.’
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger described Petr Cech’s display as outstanding and admitted his side had failed an important test of their own today.
‘We played against a good team and we gave the game away,’ said the Frenchman. ‘They had three shots on target and scored two goals from two soft set-pieces and defensively we were not at the level you have to be in a big game like that.
‘We have to show more authority and personality on the goals we conceded. The difference between Chelsea and us in the air at set-pieces was obvious.’