Chelsea’s coach Di Matteo very pleased with the performance and result

Roberto Di Matteo was in high spirits following our away win at Wigan on Sunday, and had special praise for Eden Hazard.

Hazard grabbed the headlines by creating both goals on his debut and turning in a man-of-the-match display, first releasing Branislav Ivanovic who smashed us in front with the first shot of the game after less than two minutes, and then being fouled inside the box to allow Frank Lampard a penalty later to put us firmly in control, and despite Wigan creating chances to get back into the contest, we never looked back.

Di Matteo opted to substitute the young Belgian on 63 minutes in order to give a debut to Oscar, but was delighted with the team’s performance against a tidy Wigan side.

On the overall display

‘I’m very pleased with the performance and result. It’s always tricky, the first game of the season, like you saw yesterday.

‘We played away at Wigan who finished last season on a strong note. Last season we drew here and in the home game had a tough encounter. We were expecting a difficult game and the two early goals really helped us and settled a lot of nerves.’

On Hazard

‘He showed all his quality today. He was outstanding and combined well with his team-mates. He was a threat and exactly what we were looking for. He has great technical ability, a turn of pace. He can play with his back to goal and has a lot of characteristics he can bring to our team.

‘With this kind of player, they are difficult to mark because of the movement, they are good on the ball, so I don’t think teams will try to kick him, it will just be a matter of the game.

‘I brought in another guy that is not bad himself, so I wanted to freshen it up a bit and give a debut to Oscar as well.’

On sitting back after scoring

‘I give a lot of credit to Wigan. They never gave up and still tried to go forward. We nearly scored a third which would have killed the game completely but we were quite comfortable. They didn’t create many clear cut chances, a couple of half chances but credit to Wigan. I like Roberto Martinez’s teams and what he tries to do.’

On potential transfers

‘I am happy with my squad. Maybe certain areas are a little bit light but I am happy with what we have.’

Wigan manager Roberto Martinez knew his team faced an uphill struggle, but was pleased with the fight they showed upon going 2-0 down.

‘We all see what Chelsea can do. They punished us, but I was very pleased from that moment on. We couldn’t have had a harder test than being 2-0 down against the European champions after six minutes.

‘Chelsea were happy to defend and run the clock down, and I took that as a real compliment to the side.’

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