Season opener analysis: Chelsea 2-0 Wigan

WIGAN, ENGLAND – AUGUST 19: Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo embraces Eden Hazard as he leaves the field after being substituted during the Barclays Premier League match between Wigan Athletic and Chelsea at DW Stadium on August 19, 2012 in Wigan, England. (Photo by Chris Brunskill/Getty Images)

Three points, a clean sheet and two goals to kick start your season sounds good, but was it really that good? When the line-ups were announced, the only real surprise was the inclusion of Ryan Bertrand for Ramires in the playing XI, the Brazilian being unwell. Hazard shifted to a wide right role and Mata in his favourite central position with Torres of course up front. The idea of playing Bertrand pretty much made sense as he provided a decent cover for Ashley Cole who – believe me or not – is slightly fading due to the age factor, and new recruit Oscar started from the bench.

“Scoring goals is good, especially if you can do it early.” A very obvious statement, and thank god we did exactly what was needed. two goals in the first six minutes set the tone for the game and credit deservedly so goes to Eden Hazard. The boy was good, magical at times but to be fair, he can still do a lot better.

Looking at the goals:

First Goal – In the opening minute Wigan made a good, quick start pushing Chelsea backwards with the front three of Franco Di Santo, Victor Moses and Emmerson Boyce playing a neat passing move until Di Santo crashed into John Terry. Terry was quick to react and pushed the ball into Mata’s feet who played a good move with Branislav Ivanovic, continuing a good counter attack by passing the ball into Lampard’s feet. Although Wigan had their CM’s shielding their back four, Mata, Hazard and Ivanovic had a solution to this. Mata playing a neat ball into Hazard’s feet, and he had the awareness to skip past the charging defender to slide a perfect through ball to Ivanovic: something we had been craving for last season. Ivanovic could have passed the ball to Torres but the Serbian found his moment of glory there and put the ball past a charging Ali Al-Habsi.

WIGAN, ENGLAND – AUGUST 19: Branislav Ivanovic of Chelsea is congratulated by team-mate Juan Mata after scoring the opening goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Wigan Athletic and Chelsea at DW Stadium on August 19, 2012 in Wigan, England.

Second Goal – This goal took a mere 15 seconds if you remove the time involved in taking the penalty. From Cech’s pass to Lampard to Hazard, it took just a quarter of a minute. A very similar situation to the first goal here as well. Wigan started off attacking from the left-side this time. James McCarthy put in a cross looking to find Maynor Figueroa but the ball was easily caught by Cech. Cech quickly continued the game, rolling the ball to Lampard who made a free run from his own box to the center line and fed the ball to Hazard. Hazard who was up against Ramis had Lampard and Torres waiting for him inside the box.A little bit of trickery from the Belgian saw Ramis bring down Hazard and a penalty was given Chelsea’s way. Lampard stepped up to score his 37th penalty for Chelsea.

WIGAN, ENGLAND – AUGUST 19: Frank Lampard of Chelsea scores

What did we learn from this game-

1. Torres deserves a pass- Among the most obvious things to work upon is trying to engage Fernando Torres in play. The boy will most probably be our first choice striker and will play almost every minute if he stays fit, so the midfield really needs to up their game and involve the number nine a lot more. Although did Luiz make some good passes, for a lone striker to have only one clear cut chance in the game does not make sense. Torres was more-or-less invisible during the game and although he did make some useful runs off the ball, his positioning may not have been upto the mark.

2. Eden Hazard will be fouled- The first game of the season made it pretty obvious that Hazard will be one of the most fouled players this season. Some welcome to the Premier League eh? The lad was at times slapped, yes literally slapped by Gary Caldwell during the game (although accidentally) but even if you take that away, he had to face some ruthless tackles by the Wigan defenders.

3. Don’t take the foot off the pedal- When you score two goals inside six minutes, fans expect a lot more during the course of the game. Chelsea started to look disinterested after the first ten minutes and never really showed any aggression to get the third. The only time we came close was when Torres’s shot was cleared off the line by Ramis. Some poor passing at times by Mikel and Lampard did not help the cause.

4. Ryan Bertrand – A serious first team choice? When the line-ups came out there was the surprise inclusion of Ryan Bertrand in the playing XI. It was the first time Bertrand had made three continuous starts for the first team. So how did he fare? Bertrand’s main role was not to be the attacking threat although he did play in a more advanced role, but his main job was to cover Ashley Cole and stop Victor Moses from running riot.

Though Moses ran him ragged him at times, Bertrand did manage to have a good game. A picture perfect moment was his superb turn. If you guys read my previous blog on “Rise of Ryan Bertrand” I clearly emphasize on the fact that this boy is excellent when it comes to passing and he proved it once again having completed 90% of his passes.

All in all a good start, good 3 points but a lot to work on before we head to play Reading and of course the more substantial challenge of Newcastle at the weekend