Tottenham 1-1

Independent;

Tottenham Hotspur 1 Chelsea 1 match report: All square in love and war for old allies

Jose Mourinho and Andre Villas-Boas share the points if not a drink as substitute Juan Mata turns the game and Jan Vertonghen does his  bit in Fernando Torres’s red card

By STEVE TONGUE

The compelling, if low-scoring, start to the Premier league season continued with all the fun of the derby fair here yesterday. It left these old rivals still up among the early leaders and both managers just about satisfied, given the controversial climax to a rollocking game. Had the Portuguese pair felt like discussing it all over a bottle of red, there would have been much to talk about, but Andre Villas-Boas’s need to fly to Oporto provided him with a diplomatic way out, in every sense. He did suggest they had at least swapped phone numbers.
Before leaving, Villas-Boas admitted with justification that Chelsea were the better team in the second half, which was clear to everyone in a packed stadium.
Jose Mourinho insisted that Chelsea would have won had Fernando Torres not been wrongly sent off, although there were only nine minutes plus added time left when he was dismissed for receiving a second card encouraged by Jan Vertonghen’s play-acting.
Visiting supporters pleased enough with the point against a team they never used to lose to were left to debate whether their manager had proved himself a genius of man-management or a fallible judge in his handling of Torres and Juan Mata, the latter having been omitted once again before coming on at half-time to effect a transformation.
Both players had been regularly left out until the Capital One Cup tie at Swindon in midweek, then told to go and prove themselves in Wiltshire. They did so to good effect and therefore earned a start and a substitution respectively here, in contrast to the disappointing Kevin de Bruyne and Willian, the Brazilian reported yesterday to have actually signed a contract with Tottenham before being snatched away by Chelsea.
Torres looked so sharp that it was impossible to see how Mourinho could have favoured the out-of-touch and out-of-shape Samuel Eto’o previously.  Mata was brought on for Jon Obi Mikel and immediately trusted to play the role he craves in the centre of midfield, pushing the normal occupant Oscar out to the left. That gave Chelsea the attacking midfield three that had changed round the fixture last season, when their team came from 2-1 down to win 4-2. If the transformation was similar this time, the result remained frustratingly different.
Early on, Christian Eriksen, one of the three Tottenham summer signings to start the game, had looked capable of becoming the dominant figure. He had a key role as Tottenham took the lead in the 22nd minute by finding another new man, Roberto Soldado, whose equally deft ball offered Gylfi Sigurdsson a chance. The Icelander hurdled John Terry’s desperate challenge and flicked his shot wide of Petr Cech.
If Paulinho, effective when going forward from midfield, had beaten Branislav Ivanovic to Soldado’s low cross shortly afterwards or put his shot just before half-time inside a post instead of against it, Chelsea might have been left with too much to do.
Villas-Boas felt that second effort was “the [key] moment of the game”. Chelsea had already begun to exert some pressure at last and Terry’s strong header wide from a long cross by Ramires was a sign of what was to come.
From the start of the second half Torres made increasingly strong runs, often prompted by Mata. Just after the hour Vertonghen committed a blatant foul to stop Ramires bursting through and from Mata’s free-kick Terry, just onside, glanced in a smart header. It was only the second goal Spurs had conceded in all competitions this season.
They would finish with five yellow cards, but Chelsea’s proved more crucial. Torres picked up one for tripping Vertonghen as part of their ongoing feud, then pushed his hand down the Tottenham defender’s face but escaped with no punishment. That may have been in Vertonghen’s mind when the pair contested a long ball with nine minutes left and the Belgian stayed down longer after minimal contact. This time Torres was off.
From there a disgusted Chelsea settled for a draw that was the least they deserved, although it was almost denied them twice in the last few minutes. Michael Dawson set up Sigurdsson, who drove wide a ball that sat up nicely for him; Jermain Defoe, on for Soldado, had the sort of chance he often puts away but hit it straight at Cech.
A winning goal to the home side would have been unjust, however, for all the impressive briskness of their start in which Andros Townsend and Kyle Walker, both watched by the England manager Roy Hodgson, had combined especially well down the right flank.
“Chelsea had the upper hand on counter-attacks and deserved their equaliser,” Villas-Boas admitted.
His former friend said: “The second half was the best we’ve played – a very good spirit, tactically well. Mata showed this is the way players have to say: ‘I want to play’. He did that with the effort he made against Swindon and the way he changed the second half. Now we have played away to two title contenders, Manchester United and Tottenham and got two points. The start has been difficult but we won’t be like the last two seasons, 15 and 20 points behind.”

Line-ups:
Tottenham (4-2-3-1): Lloris; Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Naughton; Paulinho, Dembélé; Townsend (Chadli, 63), Eriksen (Holtby, 70), Sigurdsson; Soldado (Defoe, 77).

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, David Luiz, Terry, Cole; Mikel (Mata, HT), Lampard; Ramires, Oscar (Azpilicueta, 83), Hazard (Schürrle, 69); Torres.

Referee: Mike Dean.
Man of the match: Fernando Torres (Chelsea).
Match rating: 8/10

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/tottenham-1-chelsea-1-the-premier-league-match-in-pictures-8846127.html

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Observer:

Chelsea and John Terry draw at Tottenham Hotspur but Torres sees red
David Hytner at White Hart Lane

Where to start in this helter-skelter derby? Tottenham were impressive in the first half; they led deservedly and they might have been further in front at the interval. André Villas-Boas had suggested that this game could provide the barometer as to how his team would fare in this season's Premier League. It had looked ready to point to something encouraging. Playing like this, Tottenham had to be considered as title contenders.
But Chelsea roared back. Inspired by Fernando Torres, they drew level through the pantomime villain John Terry and they were set fair for victory. This team already has the mentality of champions and here was further evidence. There was drive, conviction and the sprinkling of magic, with José Mourinho particularly pleased with Juan Mata.
On as a half-time substitute, the midfielder, who has seemed to be out-of-favour, not only created the equaliser but gave his all for the team, initially from the left flank and, later, as the No10. Mourinho was so pleased that he said Mata would definitely start the important Champions League tie at Steaua Bucharest on Tuesday.
Torres, however, best summed up the topsy-turvy nature of the contest. He tangled repeatedly with Jan Vertonghen and, in the 51st minute, he put his hand to the Tottenham defender's face, drew his nails and scratched him.
This is what passes for tough-guy behaviour these days but it was spiteful and he was booked. Villas-Boas thought he might have been sent off.
Torres did depart prematurely but in contentious circumstances. He leapt into an aerial challenge with Vertonghen in the 81st minute, leading with his arm but making no contact with his opponent, who went down. Perhaps Torres's aggressive posture had influenced the referee, Mike Dean, or maybe karma was at work for the earlier scratch. Either way, Torres was stunned to receive the second yellow card. Eventually, he wandered off in a daze, unsure whether to laugh or cry. Mourinho fumed.
Tottenham finished on the front foot against the 10 men and they came close to nicking the victory, although that would have been extremely unfair on Chelsea and would most likely have plunged Mourinho into meltdown.
And for the final act of the on-field spectacle, before Mourinho made his bid for the headlines with a press conference that was pure theatre, we were treated to the sight of him and Villas-Boas apparently making their peace on the touchline. Briefly, there were respectful exchanges.
The showdown between the pair, between master and pupil, and two men whose friendship is very much in the past tense had been the principle sub-plot and their pre-match handshake – entirely perfunctory and lacking any positive feeling – appeared to frame the 90 minutes.
This was a derby in which the animosity bubbled, where the intensity was tangible and the margins were suffocatingly tight. Mourinho had set up with Ramires on the right flank to be compact, to stifle Tottenham, but Villas-Boas could punch the air when his team found the early breakthrough.
The creation was all about the balance of Christian Eriksen and the touch of Roberto Soldado. Eriksen was signed after Tottenham lost Willian to Chelsea and it felt ironic that, as the Dane probed, Willian was not even in the Chelsea squad. The Brazilian's start at Stamford Bridge has been inauspicious.
Eriksen slipped away from Frank Lampard and pinged the ball to Soldado, who laid off first-time for Gylfi Sigurdsson. Terry stretched to tackle but was too late and Sigurdsson wriggled away to squeeze a left-footed shot past the advancing Petr Cech.
It was a gripping game, heavy on technical quality and latent menace from the creative players. Tottenham had the first-half stars in Eriksen, Paulinho and Andros Townsend, even if the latter erred with a dive that earned him one of Tottenham's five yellow cards. Branislav Ivanovic denied Paulinho following Soldado's cross while on the stroke of half-time Paulinho clipped the outside of the near post after fine work from Kyle Walker and Townsend. Villas-Boas would lament that moment.
Chelsea were off-colour in the first half, even though Eden Hazard flickered, but they raised their levels. Torres crackled to life; at times, he was unplayable, showcasing his strength and explosive movement. His cross narrowly eluded Oscar while, after beating Michael Dawson, he was thwarted by Hugo Lloris.
The equaliser came when Terry muscled in to glance home Mata's free-kick – the captain gestured in his celebration at the Tottenham fans, who had baited him relentlessly – and Chelsea looked like the only team that would win. The substitute André Schürrle, released by Torres, was denied by the out-rushing Lloris.
Yet the pendulum swung upon Torres's dismissal and Tottenham nearly stole it through first Jermain Defoe, another substitute, who was released by the excellent Mousa Dembélé, and then Sigurdsson, whose fine volley from the edge of the area flew just wide.
Mourinho would have taken the point beforehand and he certainly would have done at half-time. By the end, he was not so sure.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/gallery/2013/sep/28/premier-league-tottenham-chelsea-pictures

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Telegraph:

Tottenham Hotspur 1 Chelsea 1
By Jason Burt

This was an encounter of the highest technical quality and an even higher tetchy quality. Scratch below the surface – as Fernando Torres attempted to by grabbing Jan Vertonghen’s face – of a hurly-burly London derby and here are two genuine Premier League contenders.
For Chelsea the second-half was their best 45 minutes of the season, which is ominous for the rest of the division, while for Spurs there is a growing belief that a top four finish is attainable and with it Champions League qualification. And maybe more.
It was the game of two halves, quite literally as the cliché goes. Spurs dominated the first, Chelsea claimed the second. The game-changer? Well it had to be – and it was – Juan Mata who came on at half-time and as he had done at White Hart Lane 12 months ago ran the show.
How galling that must have been for Andre Villas-Boas who brought the Spaniard to Chelsea and has then looked on perplexed as he has been deemed second-choice, at present, by Jose Mourinho who has publicly questioned his work rate.
But then, of course, Villas-Boas and Mourinho have their differences. As have been well chronicled. Sorcerer and apprentice; master and upstart and all eyes were on the pair prior to kick-off as they prowled by the side of the pitch appearing to be separated by an imaginary exclusion zone.
There was a handshake – lukewarm – and a brief exchange of words afterwards and the upshot of which was that Villas-Boas could not stop and chat as he had a plane to catch back to Porto for his, and Mourinho’s, former club’s anniversary celebrations.
He will have clinked glasses a little more heartily had Spurs held on for the win and though Mata’s introduction did make a significant difference, while Mourinho argued that Torres’s dismissal killed the momentum his team was gathering to win the game, there was another crucial moment.
It came just before half-time when Spurs midfielder Paulinho, who along with Christian Eriksen and Andros Townsend had been the dominant figure in the first period, broke through and struck an angled shot which clipped a post. Had he scored then it could have been game-over as Villas-Boas ruefully commented.
“That was the moment of the game,” he said. “That could have put us in a very, very good position and we deserved that for the first half we played. The second half was not well played by both teams but Chelsea looked very strong on the counter-attack and deserved the point.”
They did. Mourinho made his tactical alterations by moving Ramires into the centre for the static, ineffective John Obi Mikel – another big decision in an enthralling matchup.
For the way he has brought this Spurs team together with gifted players comfortable in possession Villas-Boas deserves huge credit. With his continuing ability to manage games then so does Mourinho who appeared uncomfortable as his team were swamped during that first period.
Spurs’ goal oozed quality as Eriksen’s sharp turn left Frank Lampard floundering before he clipped the ball into the feet of Roberto Soldado. His lay-off to Gylfi Sigurdsson was marginally short but he rode John Terry’s challenge to then poke the ball past the advancing Petr Cech.
Chelsea were carved open again – with Townsend finding Soldado and Paulinho running in the expectation to tap home only for Branislav Ivanovic to intervene. Mourinho appeared intent on encouraging his players to hit long balls over the top to try to use Torres’ pace and the striker grew in influence. It was possibly his best game for Chelsea even if he did not trouble Spurs’ goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
That switched with the Mata switch. Torres broke clear, running past Vertonghen but Oscar, on the stretch, could not connect properly with his sweeping cross and then there was another thrilling run by the Spaniard as he wove his way past Michael Dawson into the penalty area. Lloris smothered with a fine save but Torres was, clearly, up for it.
Perhaps his blood was up too much. A keen battle with Vertonghen was turning into something more spiteful and both players were guilty to varying degrees with pushes and shoves, trips and pokes and then that scratch. Just as that was in danger of becoming a distraction, Chelsea equalised. Of course the assist came from Mata.
Vertonghen scythed down Ramires – yet another yellow card – and Mata’s flighted ball was met by Terry, who had wasted an earlier header, but who was not tracked by Dawson and his faintest flick beat Lloris. Chelsea were, most certainly, in the ascendancy now with another fine save by Lloris, this time denying substitute Andre Schurrle after he was played in, again, by Torres. The French goalkeeper’s speed off his goal-line and anticipation ranks him among the very best.
Both managers rang through the changes but Torres’ dismissal stalled Chelsea. Suddenly Spurs sensed they could hit back and, twice, substitute Jermain Defoe went close – shooting weakly at Cech and then running across goal only for his driven effort to be deflected narrowly wide.
The tension grew and there was one last chance which fell to Sigurdsson who collected Dawson’s pass just outside the area, swivelled and shot. Cech was wrong-footed but the ball sailed, just, past his post.
“The attention should not be drawn to the managers but to the game and it was a difficult, hard battle between two teams who wanted to with this game,” Villas-Boas said. “It was a fair result.” But not one contested in the fairest of atmospheres.

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Mail:

Tottenham 1 Chelsea 1: Terry cancels out Sigurdsson opener before Torres sees red

By ROB DRAPER

In the end, honours were even, egos remained intact and reputations were salvaged - and that was just the managers.
Amid the sideshow, an excellent match broke out, with sub-plots aplenty. Tottenham looked to be establishing credentials as genuine title contenders before Chelsea produced their best football of this Jose Mourinho era and almost won the game.
David Luiz returned but it was the introduction of Juan Mata - finally - at half-time that coincided with a shift in the balance of power.
Fernando Torres was excellent - indeed, it was quite a day for the Mourinho outcasts - until he was sent off after 81 minutes. That decision seemed harsh but Torres was earlier spared when he appeared to scratch Jan Vertonghen’s face.
All that, and outbreaks of superb football from both sides.
From Spurs there was one such move on the stroke of half-time. Kyle Walker backheeled the ball to the excellent Andros Townsend, who dummied and found Paulinho, who in turn struck a post. It exemplified the strides Spurs have been making - glorious, sweeping football that would have graced the best teams.
It was also, for Andre Villas-Boas, a pivotal incident.
‘I think it was the moment of the game,’ he said. ‘Had that gone in it could have put us in a very good position and I think we deserved that for the first half we played.’
But then came Mata and an entirely different Chelsea emerged.
‘I think he changed the game,’ said Villas-Boas. ‘He probably had the impact Chelsea and Jose wanted.’
Indeed, Mata appears to have redeemed himself and he will soon be back as an automatic starter.
‘I think this is the way the players should say, “I want to play!”,’ said Mourinho. ‘Conversations with you [the Press] is not good; the agent saying “blah, blah, blah” is not good.
‘This is good: the effort he made against Swindon and the way he changed the team in the second half. Because of that I’m a very happy manager to say two days in advance he will play against Steaua Bucharest in the Champions League.’
It was not all Mata. Ramires switched into John Obi Mikel’s holding midfield role and suddenly there was zest, bite and invention in  Chelsea’s game. Torres was as much at the heart of the recovery as Mata, his running duel with Vertonghen a function of his appetite for victory.
Still, the Spaniard was fortunate not to receive a red card after a  confrontation in the 51st minute.
Torres tripped the Belgian and then appeared to scratch the player. But he received a yellow card only for the trip and the second caution seemed an honest attempt to head the ball that resulted in a coming together with the Belgian.
Both fell to the floor dramatically but Mourinho reserved his wrath for Vertonghen. Mourinho felt it cost his side a chance to win the game. ‘We were much, much better and they were in trouble,’ he said, not unreasonably. But he was honest about their first-half shortcomings.
‘We have to keep working,’ he said. ‘Some qualities of some players we cannot change. We have to try to hide our weak points and bring up the situations where we are good.’
For 45 minutes it looked as if a younger, more muscular and energetic prototype was demonstrating its superiority over a tired, jaded model. Villas-Boas was looking the innovator, the likely victor.
Fernando Torres earned plenty of sympathy after being sent off following a clash with Jan Vertonghen — but he could have been dismissed half an hour earlier.
A running battle between Torres and Vertonghen finally boiled over in the 50th minute, when the Chelsea striker tripped the Belgian. Vertonghen was furious, squared up to the Spaniard who then appeared to scratch the Spurs player. But Torres was only booked for the original trip.
Tottenham’s goal was symptomatic of all that was good in their play. Christian Eriksen, dominant before fading amid Chelsea’s renaissance, turned away from Frank Lampard to create space and play in Roberto Soldado, who held the ball up for Gylfi Sigurdsson. With John Terry stretching to intervene, Sigurdsson took a touch and smashed the ball home.
The equaliser, when it came, was initiated by Mata’s beautifully floated free-kick which was met with the most traditional of English thumping headers by Terry.
Hugo Lloris saved well from Andre Schurrle after 77 minutes and only when Torres left did Spurs recover. Sigurdsson fired over and, at the death, substitute Jermain Defoe had a chance to win it but saw his shot deflected wide.

Tottenham (4-2-3-1): Lloris 7; Walker 7, Dawson 6, Vertonghen 6, Naughton 7; Paulinho 6, Dembele 8; Townsend 7 (Chadli 62, 5), Eriksen 6 (Holtby 69, 5), Sigurdsson 6; Soldado 6 (Defoe 76, 6)
Subs not used: Friedel, Chirches, Lamela, Sandro

Booked: Townsend, Eriksen, Vertonghen, Dawson, Dembele
Goal: Sigurdsson 20.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech 6; Ivanovic 6, Luiz 6, Terry 7, Cole 6; Mikel 5 (Mata 46, 7), Lampard 6; Ramires 8, Oscar 5 (Azpilicueta 82), Hazard 5 (Schurrle 69, 4); Torres 7

Subs not used: Schwarzer, Cahill, Essien, Eto'o.
Booked: Torres, Ivanovic
Sent off: Torres
Goal: Terry 65.
Ref: Mike Dean

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Mirror:

Tottenham 1-1 Chelsea: John Terry header secures a point for Blues as Torres sees red
By Matt Law

The Spaniard was given a second yellow for an innocuous challenge after Terry cancelled out Gylfi Sigurdsson's opener
The claws had been out all week between Andre Villas-Boas and Jose Mourinho.
The Portuguese men at war struck a temporary truce at White Hart Lane, but Chelsea striker ­Fernando Torres could not resist a swipe of his own.
Torres was fortunate to get away with scratching Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen.
But he was not so lucky in the final 10 minutes, when referee Mike Dean showed the Spaniard a second yellow card for an aerial clash with the Belgian.
Replays showed that Torres had not connected with an elbow, despite the fact that Vertonghen clutched his face in supposed agony.
Chelsea boss Mourinho said: “The player had his hands on his face pretending there had been a violent action.
“It was a situation where the player was not helping the referee.
“It was not a wrong ­decision because the referee trusted the player. The player looked like he needed to go to hospital with a broken bone, but you see the replays and there is nothing.”
The battle between Torres and Vertonghen was far more fierce than anything that went on between Villas-Boas and Mourinho.
The pair shook hands before kick-off and at the final whistle, and both men seemed satisfied with a point.
Mourinho can perhaps claim a small victory in the fact he changed the game with the introduction of Juan Mata, who inspired a second-half fightback from the Blues.
But it was Villas-Boas who had got his starting line-up spot on as Spurs dominated the first half and could have gone in a couple of goals ahead.
Gylfi Sigurdsson opened the scoring in the 19th minute, following good work from Christian Eriksen.
The Dane escaped Frank Lampard and played the ball into Roberto Soldado, who pushed it through for Sigurdsson.
He evaded an attempted challenge from John Terry and left Petr Cech with no chance.
Villas-Boas jumped from his seat in the dug-out and White Hart Lane erupted as Spurs sensed an opportunity to take advantage of ­Chelsea’s slow start.
Branislav Ivanovic came to Chelsea’s rescue four minutes later as he cut out a cross from Andros Townsend with Paulinho sliding in.
With England manager Roy Hodgson watching, Townsend produced a wonderful first-half performance that caused Ashley Cole plenty of problems.
It was Townsend who created the chance just before the break that Villas-Boas felt would have secured all three points for Spurs.
The winger freed Paulinho in the area, but, from a tight angle, the midfielder struck the outside of the post.
Mourinho needed to make a change and sent on Mata to replace John Obi Mikel at the start of the second half in a substitution that altered the course of the game.
But Torres could easily have left Chelsea with a mountain to climb just six minutes after the break when he first clashed with Vertonghen.
The Spanish international was booked for tripping the Spurs man and, as the pair squared up, Torres scratched Vertonghen’s face.
Referee Dean may not have seen the incident, which could yet lead to retrospective action from the FA – even though Torres was eventually given his marching orders.
While they still had 11 men, Chelsea bossed the second half and it was no surprise that Mata had a hand in the 65th-minute equaliser.
Following a foul from Vertonghen on Ramires, Mata drifted a free-kick into the box and Terry rose to head past Hugo Lloris.
The Spurs keeper then had to race from his line to make a great save from substitute Andre Schurrle after the German had been sent through by Torres.
Chelsea looked likely winners before Torres got his marching orders.
Vertonghen landed in a heap, clutching his face after challenging for a ball with Torres and Dean sent him off.
The decision gave Tottenham a second wind and Sigurdsson almost clinched all three points with a looping volley that dropped just wide.


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Express:

Tottenham 1 - Chelsea 1: John Terry gets Jose Mourinho off the hook

Jim Holden

THEY shook hands before the game. They shook hands afterwards. What mattered to the animated managers of Spurs and Chelsea was how their teams delivered a compelling match of style and skills, drama and controversy.
The first meeting of former close friends and now deadly rivals Andre Villas-Boas and Jose Mourinho was a showdown it was impossible to take your eyes off.
Spurs controlled the first half with a superior passing game and went ahead with a sublime goal from Gylfi Sigurdsson.
Chelsea, presumably fired up by an emotional Mourinho team talk, bossed the second period with a performance of formidable power, equalising through captain John Terry and then hanging on for a point when striker Fernando Torres was sent off late in the game.
Nobody disputed that the fierce draw was a fair result over 90 minutes.
Everybody could see the decision to show Torres a second yellow card for an innocuous aerial challenge was daft. That sent Mourinho into typical manic verbal overdrive, accusing Spurs defender Jan Vertonghen of over-reacting to the incident and playing an unfair part in the dismissal of Torres.
What the Chelsea manager failed to mention was that Torres had been hugely fortunate to escape a straight red card half an hour earlier when TV pictures showed he grabbed the face of Vertonghen in far from gentlemanly fashion.
It’s funny how managers only see the things they want to see. Of course, it suits Mourinho to turn football matches into a morality play, often with a conspiracy theory at its heart. He’s a master of that blatant art.
Yesterday, though, the abiding memory will be of Mourinho’s team finding the very best of themselves in the second half and giving the kind of display that potential champions require. He had brought on Juan Mata as a half-time substitute, and the talent of the impish Spaniard improved the side. But it was the sheer desire and determination of the entire Chelsea side that gave them such strong control.
In the first half Mourinho had looked troubled on the touchline. In the second half he was a manager in command, just like the good old days.
It felt like a serious turning point for Chelsea after their stuttering start to the season.
Villas-Boas admitted that Chelsea would be happier with the result, and he will have been concerned with how Spurs were so severely knocked out of their elegant stride.
For 45 minutes they had been in charge, with Christian Eriksen and Moussa Dembele pulling the strings in midfield and Andros Townsend impressing with darting runs on the right flank, although not with a dive that earned him a yellow card.
Their goal came in the 19th minute, engineered by a sharp turn, the sharp thinking, and an even sharper pass from Eriksen.
That was tapped off by Roberto Soldado to Sigurdsson, who smuggled the ball into the net for a wonderful strike. A few minutes later only a last-ditch clearance from Branislav Ivanovic prevented a second goal after a thrilling Spurs move.
On the stroke of half-time they slashed through the Chelsea defence again, but Paulinho’s shot hit the post.
This proved to be the turning point.
Chelsea started to play instead of wasting possession with hopeless long balls – and their dynamism overwhelmed Spurs for long periods.
Torres was in outstanding form, running hard at the Tottenham defenders and playing with a combination of intensity and incisiveness rarely witnessed in a blue shirt.
He beat the home defence all by himself with one surging run, and was only foiled by a fine save from goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
His personal battle with Vertonghen was robust, and maybe Torres was a little too motivated for his own good.
Torres set up Mata for a ‘goal’ that was correctly disallowed for offside, and it was Mata’s delightful curling free-kick that Terry guided into the net with a glancing header for Chelsea’s equaliser.
The red card for Torres, whatever the overall rights and wrongs, gave momentum back to Spurs for the final few minutes and the home side almost snatched victory.
Sigurdsson sent a shot dipping just over the bar, while substitute Jermain Defoe had a goal-bound effort deflected just wide.
Honours even then – and there was honour between the managers too as they set aside the pre-match verbal ding-dong and shook hands after the final whistle and spoke together out of view of the cameras.
Each could take some comfort from a match that revealed both teams have the potential to be title challengers this season.
“We should focus on the players, not the managers,” said Villas-Boas afterwards. He is surely right.

Ref: M Dean
Att: 35,857

TOTTENHAM: Lloris; Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Naughton; Paulinho, Dembele; Townsend (Chadli 62), Eriksen (Holtby 69), Sigrudsson; Soldado (Defoe 77).
CHELSEA: Cech; Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole; Lampard, Mikel (Mata 46); Ramires, Oscar (Azpilicueta 83), Hazard (Schurrle 69); Torres.

MAN of MATCH: Fernando Torres – the Chelsea striker produced his most dynamic display in a long time.

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Star:

Tottenham Hotspur 1 - Chelsea 1: Fernando Torres sees red in derby

SPANIARD Fernando Torres ­acted like a raging bull on the day peace broke out between the Portuguese Men at War.

By Tony Stenson

Well, kind of.
Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas shook hands with his compatriot Jose Mourinho before and after the game – but at times there seemed to be more warmth in an ice cube than between the pair.
Torres supplied the heat by getting ­under the skin of Tottenham’s defenders with niggling tactics – but he also caught the eye of ­referee Mike Dean.
After being booked for a run-in with Jan ­Vertonghen, he kept chipping away and was eventually sent-off in the 80th minute for ­jumping into the big defender.
There did not seem to be much contact but Dean saw intent in the forward’s movement and had got fed-up with the player for continually arguing.
Torres’ stupid antics took the gloss off Chelsea’s storming fightback and ­deflected some of the attention away from the returning Juan Mata.
Coming on as a ­substitute in the second half, Mata transformed the game and proved again to Mourinho that he is far too valuable to be ­sitting on the bench.
The Chelsea boss said: “Mata played the way I have wanted him to play. He was a real game-changer. Will he play in the Champions League on Tuesday? Wait and see. But after losing at home to Basel in our opening game, it is vital we do not lose in Bucharest.”
At times on the touchline yesterday it was like watching synchronised dancing as both managers prowled, twisted, ­whistled, shouted and waved imaginary yellow cards.
They were watching a typical derby. It was fast, feisty and ­action-packed with moments of wonderful skills – with most of them coming from Spurs new-boy Christian Eriksen.
Chelsea defended solidly but did not have the quality or power in ­midfield ­during the first half to stem a tide that ­regularly rolled their way.
Spurs were ­dominant and Mourinho was finally forced to bring Mata into his side at the expense of John Obi Mikel at half-time.
“At times on the touchline yesterday it was like watching synchronised dancing as both managers prowled, twisted, ­whistled, shouted and waved imaginary yellow cards”
The Spain ace started wide right with Ramires going into the middle to add a snap that had previously been missing.
Mata soon had the ball in the net but that effort was rightly ruled out for ­offside. It did ensure that Chelsea kept momentum though.
Dwelling on the ball was often met with a meaty tackle and both sides occasionally went for the long ball to try to bypass the midfield. The first chance of the day fell to Frank Lampard but he whacked a 12th-minute shot over after good work by Torres and Eden Hazard.
But once Spurs settled they crafted moves with quality and class, with ­Eriksen behind most.
The dainty Dane orchestrated the ­opening goal in the 19th minute.
He wormed his way into Chelsea’s ­defence, slipped the ball to Roberto ­Soldado who then laid it into the path of Gylfi Sigurdsson who battled through a number of tackles to score.
Kyle Walker and Andros Townsend combined well in the 44th minute to split the Chelsea defence open and put Paulinho through, whose effort hit the post.
Mata’s arrival on to the pitch gave ­Chelsea brightness and quality that had been missing and he signalled his arrival by floating over the perfect free-kick for skipper John Terry, putting in another solid performance, to rise highest to head home in the 65th minute.
Chelsea’s ten men held out after Torres’ departure as Spurs launched a ­ferocious late rally that could have paid off if they had kept their nerve rather than whacking efforts from all angles.

Swindon 2-0

Independent:

Swindon 0 Chelsea 2

If Jose Mourinho's first spell in charge of Chelsea was synonymous with the era of the "untouchables", the theme since his return this summer has been more about the "undesirables".
Mourinho has never been shy in letting players know just who is not in his good books and there was an impressive cast list of victims for this Capital One Cup third-round tie. Chief protagonist was Juan Mata, Chelsea's Player of the Year as voted by the fans for the past two seasons, but surprisingly playing second fiddle to Oscar this term.
There were many other significant names playing a supporting role, including David Luiz, who was left out of the squad against Fulham at the weekend, and players who have seen little action at all, such as Michael Essien, Ryan Bertrand and Cesar Azpilicueta. This was their chance to prove a point in front of their harshest critic.
Mourinho admitted earlier in the week that he does not know what his best team is, so clearly some places in the first XI are still available. For the hosts, League One Swindon, it was an opportunity to add to the angst of these individuals and going into the game boasting a seven-month unbeaten home record certainly gave them cause for confidence.
As always in cup ties like this, the gulf in class on paper was vast. Chelsea made 10 changes to form their "B" team and yet it was worth around £185m in transfer fees. In contrast Swindon's starting XI cost £550,000 – just over three weeks' worth of Fernando Torres' wages.
For the opening quarter, it appeared as if the men in blue were failing their audition and Swindon were happy to capitalise. One strong tackle from Yaser Kasim demonstrated their hunger for the occasion and, unfortunately, brought a premature end to Marco van Ginkel's evening as he limped down the tunnel.
A nervous clearance straight into touch from debutant keeper Mark Schwarzer and a reckless casual back heel from Luiz sparked some sign of frustration from Mourinho on the sidelines. But there was too much quality on show for Chelsea to be subdued for long and it was Mata who typically provided the spark that had not only been missing on the night, but arguably for most of the season so far.
A sublime through ball for Torres put the striker in on goal and only a superb save from Wes Foderingham denied him. Just two minutes later, Foderingham made another fine stop from Mata, but the rebound ran kindly for Torres to stroke the ball into the empty net.
Torres, like Mata, has good reason to be upset, given that he is the only forward to have found the net for Chelsea this season and yet has also been left out in the cold following Samuel Eto'o's arrival. He also played a major part in Chelsea's second, setting up substitute Ramires, who was replaced at half-time by John Terry, to chip home neatly.
However a sloppy second-half showing, which included a Dany N'Guessan header for Swindon being ruled out for offside, may mean Mourinho will still call on the "A" team for the tougher test at Tottenham on Saturday.

Man of the match Torres.
Match rating 6/10.
Referee M Oliver (Northumberland).
Attendance 14,924.

=================

Guardian:

Chelsea's Fernando Torres starts destruction of Swindon Town ambitions

 Dominic Fifield at the County Ground

In the end a cast of Champions League and even World Cup winners, assembled at a cost of around £180m, eased beyond League One opposition although José Mourinho departed Wiltshire thinking less about what he had learned and more about what he had lost. Marco van Ginkel will undergo a scan on a potentially serious knee injury while Ramires is also doubtful for Saturday's trip to White Hart Lane. Progress came at a cost.
The Brazilian had replaced Van Ginkel, the youngster having collided with Alex Pritchard to limp from the fray within 10 minutes of the start. The coaching staff's initial assessment was pessimistic and his loss to potential ligament damage was compounded by that of Ramires at the interval, with the Brazilian suffering discomfort at the top of his thigh. "He'll be a major doubt for the Tottenham Hotspur game," confirmed the assistant first-team coach, Steve Holland. "So we've ended up with two potential casualties."
That represented unwelcome news on an evening that was supposed to be about swelling the manager's first-team options. Mourinho had billed this as an opportunity for those cast into the shadows to demand more time in the limelight and, albeit predictably, some of his more forward-thinking players excelled.
Juan Mata, on a third start under the Portuguese, will have enjoyed conjuring in the No10 role denied him in the first-choice lineup by Oscar, while Fernando Torres seared beyond his markers at times to score one goal and set up the other.
Yet those positives were rather dulled by the losses to injury, most likely leaving Frank Lampard and Mikel John Obi as starters at Spurs, with Swindon's refusal to wilt ensuring the contest ended more as an exercise in pragmatism. David Luiz was thrust into midfield to replace his compatriot and a disrupted back-line was occasionally undone by the home side's sprightly performance and reliant upon Chelsea's oldest debutant in Mark Schwarzer. The Australian's sure handling, denying Pritchard, Yaser Kasim and Dany N'Guessan, belied a man approaching his 41st birthday.
By then the game had been won with a couple of first-half goals, for all the home side's huff and puff thereafter, with Torres in particular having left the management possibly pondering his inclusion at White Hart Lane. The Spaniard had already benefited from one slipped pass from Mata, with Wes Foderingham summoning a fine reflex save, when Ramires' trademark leggy burst left Swindon defenders lunging in desperately. The Brazilian skipped eagerly across the penalty area then fed Mata. His shot was pushed away at full stretch by the goalkeeper, only for Torres to beat retreating markers to the ball and convert from a tight angle.
The £50m forward remains the only Chelsea striker to have registered this season, though it was the reminder that he can also supply when offered time and space that really took the breath away. His turn of pace and glorious pass for a rampaging Ramires moments later secured the win, the midfielder clipping over Foderingham to convert. "It's the speed at which they do everything, executing their passes and their runs," said the Swindon manager, Mark Cooper. "That's what gets them out of tight places and sets them apart."
Mata's display was encouraging in its own way, the staff quick to point to a tackle near the byline deep into stoppage time as evidence that the penny has dropped. "The message to all our attacking players from day one has been they need to contribute offensively in terms of production: making goals, scoring chances, being a threat, but also contributing out of possession and defending," said Holland.
"Juan's made Fernando's chance early on, was involved in the goal, and then in injury time he's conceded the final corner of the game supporting Ryan Bertrand at left-back, which is how he was all night.
"There's no such thing as a luxury player these days. You can perhaps carry a luxury player in certain fixtures, but not many. And at the business end in major trophies, playing Bayern Munich or Barcelona, you need 10 players who can all contribute out of possession.
"But we're very pleased with Juan's contribution, with and without the ball. Similarly, Fernando's scored, had two other good chances and worked very hard for the team all night. That's the standard we're looking for across every position."
Those constituted the positives. The rather slapdash nature of Willian's display, the loss of one young fringe player and the potential absence of a key midfielder at Spurs represented a grimmer reality.


=======================

Mirror:

Swindon 0-2 Chelsea: Juan Mata and David Luiz star as Blues cruise into fourth round

Jose Mourinho was proved wrong by Juan Mata and David Luiz on Tuesday night.
The Chelsea boss had urged the pair to respond on the pitch after being dropped from the first team.
They did, showing they are too good not to be in Mourinho’s starting XI for more challenging competitions than this.
Fernando Torres and Ramires were the scorers but it was Mata who ran the show to ensure there was no giant-killing at the County Ground.
Mata and Luiz were recalled to a starting line-up which cost £182m even if a Capital One Cup tie against League One opposition felt a long way from Champions League nights.
Swindon quickly tried to make their mark and Marko Van Ginkel was forced off early on after heavy challenges in midfield. He was replaced by Ramires. But if Robins boss Mark Cooper hoped that might put the frighteners on Mourinho’s men he misjudged Mata’s determination to prove his point.
The brilliant Spaniard was instrumental for the Blues and was in the mood to show the Special One he should still be the main man at Stamford Bridge. Mata’s superb pass released Torres in the 27th minute but the striker was denied by keeper Wes Foderingham.
Two minutes later, Mata was again involved. This time he latched onto a Ramires pass and when Foderingham made another fine save, Torres tapped in the rebound.
Chelsea assistant first-team coach Steve Holland admitted he had been impressed by Mata on the night: "He made Fernando's chance and was involved in the goal. Those two moments - goal-making and goal-scoring actions.
"And then in injury time he's conceded the final corner of the game supporting Ryan Bertrand in the left-back spot, which is how he was all night."
"Tonight, for sure, we're very, very pleased with Juan's contribution with and without the ball."
Chelsea’s second came on 35 minutes when Torres produced a superb turn and drag back before playing in Ramires for a clinical finish.
Swindon could have given up hope but battled hard in the second half and Chelsea’s reserve keeper Mark Schwarzer made a brilliant point blank save from a Dany N’Guessan header.


=================================

Fulham 2-0

Independent:

Chelsea 2 Fulham 0
Blues uninspiring in climb to the top

By STEVE TONGUE

“We will give you happiness,” Jose Mourinho promised in his programme notes. He did not specify that it would be today, when there were too many periods of doubt and frustration for the home crowd, but from the worst start to a season in the Abramovich era - as well as a Champions' League home defeat by Basle in midweek - Chelsea now sit on top of the Premier League table; until this afternoon at least.
Although Fulham have just about the worst record of any club against their main local rivals - nine wins in 79 meetings now and one since 1979 - four of the last five League matches had been drawn before today and until Oscar's goal early in the second half they looked capable of achieving another. They did not, however, take their two good chances and were punished further by that collector's item, a goal by Jon Obi Mikel. It was his first in the League and only a third in almost 300 games, which sent many supporters home with a smile after all. Adding to their pleasure, their neighbours drop into the bottom three.
 Afterwards Mourinho pointed to the League table in defence of his decision to leave Juan Mata not only out of the starting XI again but out of the squad. The manager has made it obvious that he regards the gifted Brazilian Oscar as first-choice for the creative playmaker's role just behind the main striker, one which he grew into today, improving during the second half as the rest of his team did. On Mata, Mourinho said: “He must work and adapt to a certain way of playing and has to learn to play the way I want - be more consistent and more participative when the team lose the ball.”
 It was still significant that with less than half an hour gone, Oscar, Andre Schurrle - who had been ineffective as a centre forward away to Manchester United - and Eden Hazard had all done a shift in the central role with equally little success. Samuel Eto'o, in whom he has invested so much faith, played unimpressively in front of them and later made way for Fernando Torres, in whom Mourinho seems to have far less belief.
 “The result was better than the result against Everton, but I think we played much better against Everton than we did today,” Mourinho added. “After a bad start that everybody kept telling me is the worst start for about a decade, I go to bed and look at the table nobody is in front of us.”
Four players did drop out after the loss to Basle - David Luiz and the midfield trio Willian, Marco van Ginkel and Frank Lampard. John Terry came in at the back and looked solid alongside Gary Cahill. They were caught out only once, when Darren Bent's pace should have given Fulham the lead. Pajtim Kasami, playing just behind him, sent a perfect pass between the two centre backs but the former England striker, just onside, allowed Petr Cech to save with his foot.
 That was by far the best opportunity of the first half, David Stockdale in the visitors' goal being required to make no more than one save from the excellent Branislav Ivanovic, in between fielding crosses and corners.
Not surprisingly the away fans were by far the more satisfied come the interval, even chanting the name of their manager, who had been the subject of isolated calls for his head following last Saturday's draw at home to West Bromwich Albion. From the same end of the ground came taunts of  “you're not special anymore” at Mourinho, who must surely have used equally harsh words to his team in the dressing-room.
Jol said: “At half-time we were really pleased, but in the second half they were more aggressive than us.” That aggression, a determination to win more balls, led to a goal seven minutes after the resumption when Stockdale could not hold shots from either Schurrle, cutting in from the left, or Eto'o, leaving Oscar with an easy task to put Chelsea ahead, as he had done against Basle.
Jol summoned the mercurial Adel Taarabt and there was an immediate reminder that the lead needed to last longer than the 25 minutes on Wednesday: Kasami flighted a free-kick beyond the far post, where Steve Sidwell headed weakly wide.
With seven minutes to play a header by Torres forced a fine save from Stockdale and from the resulting corner Terry headed down for  Mikel to convert with an acrobatic effort for his first goal in any competition since January 2007.
Mourinho, meanwhile, has lived up to his promise to help English football by agreeing that his assistant Steve Holland should become the permanent coach to the Under-21 team under Gareth Southgate. Holland, who was briefly manager of Crewe, will stay at Chelsea, where on this evidence he still has plenty of work to do - top of the table or not.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Cole; Ramires, Mikel; Schürrle (Lampard, 80), Oscar, Hazard (De Bruyne, 85); Eto’o (Torres, 64).

Fulham (4-4-1-1): Stockdale; Riether, Hangeland, Amorebieta, Richardson; Duff (Taarabt, 64), Sidwell, Parker, Kacaniklic (Na Bangna, 72) Kasami (Rodallega, 85); Bent.

Man of the match Ivanovic.

Match rating 5/10.
Referee Andre Marriner.

=============

Observer:

Chelsea's Oscar and Mikel claim top spot with victory over Fulham
Dominic Fifield at Stamford Bridge

So the worst start to a campaign in the Roman Abramovich era has condemned Chelsea to the top of the Premier League table. José Mourinho did not entirely ooze satisfaction after this rather stop-start display against rivals from along the Fulham Road but, deep down, the pragmatist in him will have been relieved to have curtailed a four-match winless streak.
The process of change is continuing but this squad's adaptation may be more easily implemented if the mood is buoyant. The manager pointed out the performance at Goodison Park the previous weekend had been more fluent than that mustered here, even if Chelsea were beaten there but prevailed against Fulham. Yet he could still take satisfaction from a first goal in 185 Premier League games from Mikel John Obi and, more significantly, in the impression made by Oscar, the chosen No10 while Juan Mata stews on the sidelines waiting to prove he can thrive under the new regime.
The Brazilian's form this term, allying work-rate with creation and bite, has established him as the playmaker of choice in Mourinho's system. Mata, Chelsea's player of the season in each of his two campaigns at the club, knows he has to fit in around the man signed from Internacional, and must therefore become a workaholic winger. He watched from the stands here, before a Capital One Cup tie at Swindon to come on Tuesday in which he and those others currently on the fringes will start. "I hope he tells me on the pitch: 'You are wrong, I'm the best and I have to play every game,'" Mourinho said. "I'd love that. That's to be professional. He's a top kid and a top professional.
"He took [being left out of the squad] the way I wanted. He trained this morning and my assistant, who was with them, told me he trained very, very hard. If it was all about history then nobody would criticise me, because I won two titles here and never lost a home game in the Premier League. But the past is the past. What matters is now. You have to be judged on what you do now. He had a chance to play from the beginning against Aston Villa and Everton, and 35 minutes against Basel. The point is I have my options. The thing I love in football is when players prove I'm wrong. If he proves I'm wrong, I will be the Happy One, because I want him to be fantastic. I hope he will."
The Portuguese left his real flash of frustration for Ruud Gullit, a former Chelsea manager who was working as a pundit on Sky on Saturday night and had suggested that Mata's omission had been "something personal". "You know Ruud Gullit is a different kind of pundit because he was also a manager," Mourinho said. "He shouldn't be a very proud manager for what he did in the last years."
The game itself was more functional than flamboyant. Chelsea had heaved through the opening period, lucky not to fall behind when Pajtim Kasami slipped a pass between the home centre-halves but Darren Bent could only strike the on-rushing Petr Cech with his shot. The striker, at his sharpest, would have taken the opportunity with ease but here, with the effects of a disrupted pre-season and a recent hamstring strain perhaps blunting his edge, the chance went begging. Fulham created nothing clearer all night, their lack of ambition merely inviting pressure and making defeat feel inevitable. Their 34-year wait for a win in this arena goes on.
They did still frustrate the hosts through the opening period, Martin Jol sensing Chelsea "were really worried", only to undermine all their efforts by presenting a clear opportunity to Oscar the poacher. David Stockdale never really suggested confidence and his handling was sloppy early in the second half, a failure to grasp André Schürrle's near-post shot prompting panic. Samuel Eto'o's follow-up was pushed out by the goalkeeper as he sprawled down to his left but Oscar simply prodded the loose ball into the gaping net.
There was more urgency thereafter to Chelsea's display, a second goal eventually thrashed home from close-range by Mikel near the end. It was the first time the Nigerian had scored in the Premier League in 185 matches. "The lads have been killing me, saying I always score for the national team and never for us," the midfielder said.
Mourinho's next task may be to coax a league goal from one of his trio of strikers. Fernando Torres came closest here, forcing Stockdale into a smart save, but Eto'o still looks rusty. "I think he did his job, not in a brilliant way but he worked for the team, the same way [Demba] Ba and Torres always do," added the manager. "I cannot complain with effort and attitude, but they are not scoring goals. And that, for a striker, is not the best." Their chances will come. Mata must hope his do too.

================

Telegraph:

By Jason Burt

Chelsea top of the Premier League courtesy of a west London derby victory – so what could possibly be wrong? Except if ever there was a performance crying out for a tricky, creative elusive midfielder then this was it. Except Juan Mata, player of the year, model professional, did not even make Jose Mourinho’s squad and sat watching in his jeans and hooded top. Strange days at Stamford Bridge. Fantasy Football? This was functional. Little more.
Except Chelsea won and it piled the pressure on Fulham manager Martin Jol, whose side are now in the bottom three on goal difference. The first goal came from Oscar, the player chosen by Mourinho as his ‘number 10’ ahead of Mata even if most observers would find a place for both players in their team. It surely is not an either/or?
Mata and David Luiz — also dropped from the squad because of Mourinho’s displeasure — high-fived fans as they walked down the touchline prior to kick off, cutting incongruous figures in their civvies. Both fit. Neither needed. A testimony, of course, to the strength of this Chelsea squad but, more than that, a sign that everything is not right.
Not that Fulham has been the happiest of camps either with manager Martin Jol calling out the home supporters who barracked him during last week’s draw at home to West Bromwich Albion — an outburst he subsequently regretted. He will have also regretted having to go into this encounter, so often a draw in recent meetings, without the injured Dimitar Berbatov, as his side had slid towards that relegation zone prior to the kick-off and with other results.
The first opportunity, however, fell to them with two former Chelsea players — Damien Duff and Steve Sidwell — combining only for the latter to head over. Almost immediately Chelsea went close with Samuel Eto’o beating goalkeeper David Stockdale to Branislav Ivanovic’s cross only to steer the ball well wide.
But Fulham should then have taken the lead with a clever first-time pass from Pajtim Kasami, splitting the Chelsea defence, finding Gary Cahill woefully on his heels and exposed, and sending Darren Bent clear on goal.
He steadied himself but his shot was too deliberate and Petr Cech blocked. He had to score.
As, naturally, Chelsea’s dominance of possession grew so Fulham were pushed back. They remained composed but there was a scare when Eto’o cut inside on his right foot only for his shot to be deflected into the side-netting with Stockdale wrong-footed and another as Eden Hazard was bumped into by Sascha Riether inside the penalty area. No penalty was given.
Mourinho interchanged the trio behind Eto’o, with Hazard moving into the centre, but Fulham — with Scott Parker and Sidwell in front of the central defence — remained organised although Stockdale did then flap at a corner which only just skimmed over the onrushing Cahill.
Another corner was earned, after Ramires was crowded out, his shot also taking a deflection, following Eto’s header across goal. From it Stockdale, unconvincingly again, palmed the ball out to Hazard whose half-volley was screwed wide.
Fulham’s threat, on the break, was clear with Duff, in particular, prominent and Sidwell and Parker — to complete that trio of old boys at the Bridge — also figuring against an increasingly uninspired Chelsea approach which was summed up by Hazard shooting weakly across goal when things opened up and he had the chance to create something more meaningful.
The watching Roman Abramovich could not have been impressed while Mourinho remained seated before, finally, a strong opportunity was fashioned for Ivanovic. The ball pin-balled across the area and ran to the full-back whose powerful first-time effort was beaten out by Stockdale with his legs only to ricochet off Kieran Richardson for a corner. From it Hazard’s half-hearted shot was blocked and there was, at half-time, the mildest chorus of boos once more.
The urge for change was resisted but there was certainly a raising of the tempo as Chelsea pushed on after the interval. They need to quickly try and break this deadlock and provide some relief and it finally came through, inevitably, a Stockdale fumble. Hazard broke forward and slipped a pass to Andre Schurrle whose shot was bundled back into play by Stockdale who only palmed Eto’s scuffed, deflected follow-up effort into Oscar’s path. He found the net and Chelsea’s advantage was as fortuitous as it was undeserved.
From a floated free-kick by Kasami, Fulham should have quickly drawn level. The ball drifted over the Chelsea defenders to Sidwell who headed wide when, again, he should have scored. He wiped his face in disbelief.
Eto’o soon departed – with Fernando Torres’ arrival cheered deeply. Will the fears now grow, after another unconvincing performance by the 32-year-old Cameroonian striker, that here is another Andrei Shevchenko, another Torres for Chelsea? Certainly that central striker’s berth, a replacement for Didier Drogba, has become, to say the least, difficult to fill.
No-one could fault Fulham’s work-rate or their desire but having missed two such good opportunities to score they appear to lose a little belief also. There were more howls for a Chelsea penalty as Ramires was up-ended (or did he make the most of the challenge?) and then Stockdale pushed over Torres’ near post header. From the corner, John Obi Mikel hooked the ball home acrobatically. Astonishingly it was his first goal in 261 games while Cech beat out Richardson’s drive to preserve a clean sheet.

=======================

Mail:

Chelsea 2 Fulham 0: Blues back to winning ways as Oscar and Mikel send Mourinho's men top of the table after derby win

By ROB DRAPER

It is a good job Jose Mourinho is still special at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea remain a team in transition and, judging by yesterday’s win over Fulham, they are not entirely embracing the experience.
Were it not for his exalted status at the club, Mourinho might even be subject of a certain amount of vociferous frustration by now. Certainly, better first-half performances than this have been greeted by boos and catcalls under less well-liked managers.
For now, Stamford Bridge is prepared to give the Portuguese time. After all, they have waited so long for his return, it would be foolish to turn on him now.
And, in the end, his side did get the expected three points, courtesy of a collector’s item — a goal from John Obi Mikel adding to Oscar’s opener. That at least gave the appearance of a comfortable win. But despite an improved second-half performance, Chelsea were insipid and flat.
You have to believe that Mourinho will put this right; that Chelsea will be restored to something like the team of old so revered here. But, for now, they remain a parody of that former self, a team vulnerable and unsure of themselves.
Surely only the victory would have pleased Mourinho?
Juan Mata and David Luiz were duly banished to the stands, sitting behind the Chelsea bench, as Mourinho made four changes from Wednesday night’s Champions League defeat by Basle. Willian and Frank Lampard, the other casualties, were at least afforded places on the bench.
If Mourinho had demanded a reaction to Wednesday night’s debacle, his players were neither capable of providing it nor willing to listen. Early on, Samuel Eto’o demonstrated his extraordinary knack of sniffing out goalscoring positions, accelerating to meet a  Branislav Ivanovic cross. However, he only managed to prod the ball over the Fulham bar.
The visitors should have taken the lead on 14 minutes, when Pajtim Kasami put in Darren Bent. Clean through on goal, Stamford Bridge tensed collectively before Petr Cech parried the shot from close range.
In truth, Fulham were cautious, though their discipline and shape had to be commended. Any midfield with Scott Parker and Steve Sidwell marshalling will be hard to break down. Still, there was no disguising the fact that Chelsea looked the antithesis of the energetic bunch who greeted Mourinho’s arrival at Chelsea for the first time in 2004.
On the rare occasions Fulham counter-attacked, Chelsea looked slow to get back into shape and allowed play to develop in areas of space. The one moment of brief exhilaration came on 36 minutes when David Stockdale scooped the ball out and Eden Hazard responded with an instinctive volley. However, it cleared the bar and any excitement was quickly quelled.
Just before half-time, Ashley Cole’s quick feet and Hazard’s persistence managed to set up Ivanovic, charging down the right. His shot, on target at least, was deflected wide.
Oscar's heat map shows how he was a constant threat to the Fulham midfield - click HERE to visit Sportsmail's brilliant Match Zone that gives you all the stats from the match
In the 52nd minute, there was finally a spark of creativity, Andre Schurrle driving into the box past his man and shooting. Stockdale failed to deal with the strike, parrying it away and allowing Eto’o a second chance from close range. The Fulham keeper again palmed that chance away but only to Oscar. From inside the area, the Brazilian had the simplest chance but still it took a Kieran Richardson deflection to ensure the ball crossed the line.
Chelsea had the breakthrough but even so they failed to play with the freedom they once had. Within two minutes, Fulham should have been level. Kasami’s floated free-kick found Sidwell at the far post but the midfielder, with a free header, directed the ball wide.
There was an improvement in Chelsea in the second half but still there was little to cheer.
On came Fernando Torres for the ineffective Eto’o in the 64th minute. Schurrle then attempted an ambitious free-kick from 35 yards that had Stockdale scrambling.
But Ivanovic’s surging runs down the right were proving Chelsea’s most dangerous outlet, an indictment on their attacking midfield trio. Indeed, the sighs of frustration were beginning to be the most frequent crowd interjections.
Only when John Terry headed substitute Frank Lampard’s corner back across goal in the 84th minute and Mikel responded with a delightful volley could Chelsea relax.
It was a momentous moment — Mikel’s first Premier Legaue goal in seven years at the club. More importantly, it stifled for now any dissent over the direction of this Chelsea team.

Chelsea: Cech 6; Ivanovic 8, Cahill 7, Terry 7, Cole 6; Ramires 6, Mikel 7; Schurrle 6 (Lampard 79), Oscar 7, Hazard 7 (De Bruyne 85); Eto’o 6 (Torres 64, 6).
Subs not used: Schwarzer, Essien, Willian, Azpilicueta.
Goals: Oscar 52, Mikel 85.

Fulham: Stockdale 5; Riether 5, Amorebieta 6, Hangeland 6, Richardson 6; Duff 6 (Taarabt 64, 6), Parker 6, Sidwell 6,  Kacaniklic 5 (Tue Na Bangna 72, 5); Kasami 6 (Rodallega 85); Bent 5.
Subs not used: Etheridge, Senderos, Karagounis, Zverotic.

Att: 41,608
Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands).

=====================

Mirror:

Chelsea 2-0 Fulham: Oscar and Mikel score as Blues shade sleepy West London derby
Matt Law

Jose Mourinho may well feel his team selection was vindicated yesterday.
The Chelsea manager’s first-choice in the No.10 role, Oscar, set his team on the way to a vital win over neighbours Fulham.
But the bored expession on the face of owner Roman Abramovich for much of the game told the real story – Chelsea were anything but the great entertainers without Juan Mata.
And Samuel Eto’o failed to find the back of the net, after Romelu Lukaku had scored a dramatic winner for Everton at West Ham.
Mata and David Luiz were not even among the Chelsea substitutes after Mourinho had revealed Oscar is his No.1 playmaker.
Mourinho justified his decision by saying: “We have 24 players for 18 places. We have Willian [instead of Mata]. Luiz is a technical decision.”
With last season’s Player of the Year Mata and Luiz watching from the stands, their side struggled to create any clear-cut opportunities in a drab first half.
It was Fulham who squandered the best chance.
Pajtim Kasami caught out Gary Cahill with a superbly weighted pass that put Darren Bent clear but the striker sent his low shot far too close to Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech.
Mourinho’s men struggled to get behind the Fulham defence and the manager even had to pull the man who has taken Mata’s starting place, Andre Schurrle, over to the touchline to explain what he should be doing.
Having seen Lukaku get his Everton loan off to a spectacular start, Mourinho kept faith with Eto’o up front.
The striker twice had a sight of goal during the first half, but could not open his account on either occasion.
Eto’o got a toe to a Branislav Ivanovic cross but steered the ball well wide then had a low shot deflected for a corner.
Chelsea produced little else to occupy the Fulham defenders before the break.
Eden Hazard went down in the area after appearing to be nudged by Sascha Riether but referee Andre Marriner waved play on and there were few complaints from the Blues players.
But it took just seven minutes of the second half for the mood to lift considerably.
Schurrle finally attacked the Fulham defence and fired in a shot that David Stockdale could only fumble. The keeper recovered to save Eto’o’s follow-up attempt, but Oscar fired home the loose ball.
Former Blues midfielder Steve Sidwell had the opportunity to respond almost immediately for Fulham, but headed wide from close range.
Mourinho sent on Fernando Torres for Eto’o in the 64th minute but Chelsea had to wait until six minutes from full-time before they could breathe more easily.
John Terry headed substitute Frank Lampard’s corner across the six-yard box for John Obi Mikel to hook past Stockdale.
Chelsea may have returned to winning ways and at least temporarily moved to the top of the table. But there are still plenty of questions to be answered – and most of them revolve around Mata.

======================

Express:

Chelsea 2 - Fulham 0: Oscar pays back Jose Mourinho over Juan Mata matter

AN Oscar-winning performance was enough to make Chelsea top the Premier League bill last night – for 24 hours at any rate.
But don’t let that fool you. This was nothing like one of those movie masterpieces, and was down to a fortunate second-half strike by the Brazilian Oscar.
He is ahead in the pecking order as the team’s playmaker to Juan Mata, player of the year at the club for the last two seasons.
Manager Jose Mourinho said last week: “At this moment, Oscar is my No 10, and if somebody tells me he has not been Chelsea’s best player since the beginning of the season, I’d disagree.”
No-one would disagree that Oscar set his out-of-sorts side on the way to a decidedly unimpressive success that ended a dismal run by their standards.
And Jon Obi Mikel created his own bit of personal history with a second late on.
The win leapfrogged them over Arsenal, Spurs and the two Manchester giants who all play their games this afternoon. But it only served to paper over alarming cracks in the Stamford Bridge masterplan.
No wonder Mourinho breathed a huge sigh of relief. Top of the league or not, he looks to have a bigger job on his hands than he might reasonably have expected.
if somebody tells me Oscar has not been Chelsea’s best player since the beginning of the season, I’d disagree
Given that Fulham hadn’t beaten Chelsea in their last 15 meetings in all competitions before this they looked like the perfect match to help Mourinho get over the pain of four games without a win.
Trouble is, Chelsea don’t seem to know who’s doing what these days – and it showed from the word go yesterday. Enough, in fact, to get Mourinho to his feet on the touchline at a very early stage.
And when Darren Bent got on the end of a superb through ball from Pajtim Kasami after just 13 minutes it took a desperate dive by Petr Cech to deny the on-loan striker, who really ought to have done better with time and space to beat the keeper.
It was a bad effort by Bent. But it was still enough to have Chelsea’s hearts in their mouths.
The worried Blues huffed and puffed all right. But high balls into the box are not the sort of meat and drink Samuel Eto’o feeds off. Or how Chelsea used to play, either, for that matter.
Eden Hazard went close for Chelsea with a speculative strike, but we had to wait the best part of 35 minutes for that.
Then Branislav Ivanovic let fly with another piledriver just before the break, but all the signs on the home front really were far from encouraging.
Goal-less at half time was little more than Mourinho could expect. Fulham’s Martin Jol, by contrast, had good reason to be a bit disappointed, particularly with Bent.
His side, with Scott Parker effective in midfield, had certainly looked the more cohesive in that first 45 minutes.
Chelsea badly needed a slice of luck and they got it, courtesy of David Stockdale six minutes into the second half.
The Fulham keeper spilled a shot from Andre Schurrle that on another day he might have held and, after he could only parry the rebound, Oscar was in the right place at the right time to hammer home a goal Chelsea were mighty relieved to get.
Mikel wrapped up the points with his first league goal five minutes from time after John Terry set him up for a strike that has taken him an astonishing 261 games to get.
Roman Abramovich leapt to his feet to applaud the face- saving effort.
But, let’s face it, the Nigerian couldn’t have picked a better time to reward Mourinho’s faith in him.

CHELSEA: Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Cole; Schurrle (Lampard 79), Ramires, Mikel, Hazard (De Bruyne 84); Oscar; Eto’o (Torres 59).
FULHAM: Stockdale; Reither, Hangeland, Amorebieta, Richardson; Parker, Sidwell; Duff (Taarabt 64), Kasami (Rodallega 84), Kacaniklic (Mesca 72); Bent.
Ref: A Marriner Att: 41,608

MAN of MATCH: OSCAR – A goal and his effort for 90 minutes provided the highlights in an unremarkable match

=======================

Star:

JOSE MOURINHO needed a miracle last night.

By Tony Stenson

Chelsea 2 - Fulham 0: Jose Mourinho feels the force of John Obi Mikel

And he got one when John Obi Mikel scored his first league goal in 261 league appearances for Chelsea.
A man on the tannoy boasted 'Crisis? What crisis?' as Chelsea left the pitch.
Mikel's goal came five minutes from time after Brazilian star Oscar had taken the heat off Chelsea's manager. But for how long? The Blues deserved to win this West London derby for their second-half showing - but an Oscar-winning performance this wasn't.
Mourinho's return to these shores is throwing up more questions than answers.
Chelsea's manager himself claims results have been ugly but he has promised the fans the beautiful game.
His side went joint-top with Liverpool last night by playing neither ugly nor beautiful - more workmanlike really.
But is that enough to satisfy a powerful owner who sacked two managers in a year for playing better and winning more? In the end he had to send on old faithful Frank Lampard to shore up the midfield.
Chelsea's route to victory eventually opened up in the second half but it took a long time before the all-stars overcame a Fulham side that rarely chalk up wins.
And if Fulham striker Darren Bent - known for missing the odd chance or twenty - had not done the norm and scuffed an early sitter then who knows what might have happened? Chelsea beat their West London neighbours to end a run of four winless games, including two defeats. Now we wait for the beautiful.
Can Mourinho - tinkering with his side more than Chelsea's original tinkerman Claudio Ranieri - cut it anymore? Bookies are already offering decent odds that he won't last the season, frustrated that he can't control and dictate as he once did.
The old saying 'never go back' continues to haunt him. Only Chelsea fans love Mourinho.
Fulham fans taunted him unmercifully with chants of, 'You're not special anymore'.
It was hard to argue with that - at least until the second half, when they finally got their act together.
Fulham had pressed them hard, with Scott Parker influential and dictating play in midfield but lacking someone to finish off the moves.
Chelsea again left £30million Brazilian Willian on the bench. At least he was a substitute. Juan Mata, in successive seasons Chelsea's Player of the Year, had to watch from the stands.
“Chelsea's manager himself claims results have been ugly but he has promised the fans the beautiful game.”
Fulham arrived having not beaten Chelsea in their previous 15 meetings but there were few nerves showing until Samuel Eto'o scared them after six minutes, shooting wide.
Fulham's Damien Duff, Parker and Steve Sidwell all previously played for Chelsea, so they were not overawed by the occasion.
Midfield ace Parker was keen to pump balls forward and allow Bent to test his pace against the Chelsea defence but Bent wasted a 13th-minute chance shooting straight at the advancing Petr Cech.
The action was fast and furious with Duff and Ashley Cole playing a big part.
Fulham created good openings, with Parker orchestrating most, but they lacked a finishing touch with any quality.
Fulham keeper David Stockdale stopped Branislav Ivanovic giving Chelsea a 45th-minute lead, blocking a shot with his legs.
Oscar finally broke the deadlock in the 51st minute.
Mourinho later sent on Fernando Torres for Eto'o to try to increase the lead.
Chelsea's aggression finally paid off when Mikel stole in to make it 2-0 to ease the pressure after the midweek defeat to Basel.

CHELSEA: Cech 6 , Ivanovic 6 , Cahill 6, Terry 6, A. Cole 6; Hazard 6 (De Bruyne 85th), Schurrle 6, (Lampard 79th), Mikel 6, Ramires 6; Oscar 8; Eto'o 5 (Torres 59th) 5).

FULHAM: Stockdale 6; Reither 7, Hangeland 7, Amorebieta 7, Richardson 6; Parker , Sidwelll 7, Duff 7; Kacaniklic 6 (Mesca (72nd) 5), Kasami 6 (Rodallega 84th), Bent 5

STAR MAN: Oscar
Ref: A Marriner

Basle 1-2

Independent:

Chelsea 1 Basel 2

Jose Mourinho's 'eggs' look undercooked as Swiss side force historic win

Manager - whose name had been sung all around the ground earlier in the game - leaves to a smattering of booing from home fans

Sam Wallace

Even when the end came at Chelsea for Jose Mourinho precisely six years ago, it was a draw that did for him against Rosenborg - ending months of strife and simmering resentment. In those days a draw was, by the standards of the time, unacceptable but tonight things got a whole lot worse.

Chelsea's defeat to Basel was the first time that the club have lost in the group stage at home since a defeat to Besiktas in October 2003, in the days when Mourinho was still Porto manager and Roman Abramovich's millions had just turned European football upside down. The Chelsea owner was pictured on a cycling holiday in Croatia earlier today but he was back at Stamford Bridge to watch and down the tunnel to the home dressing room within minutes of the end.
Last season it was the draw with Juventus in his opening home group game that left Roberto Di Matteo playing catch-up and ultimately saw his side eliminated by Christmas. This season Chelsea's group E does not have quite such a difficult array of opponents but still, Mourinho's side have given themselves an awkward task from the very start. Win your home games in the Champions League and you are most of the way to qualification.
It was politic not to mention the analogies about good eggs and mediocre ones, after a Chelsea performance that never really caught the imagination and had Mourinho scowling on the touchline for most of the evening. Oscar scored with the last kick of the first half, but the uninspiring Swiss side, equalised through Mohamed Salah and then their captain Marco Streller claimed an unlikely win.
Later, Mourinho tried to protect his team and offer himself up as the fall-guy for what was just the third home group stage defeat in the Champions League of his entire managerial career. But he could not help himself pointing out that this is a Chelsea team that lacks “maturity and personality” and even, in his words, “shakes a little bit”.
Even more worrying for Mourinho, Chelsea had very little cutting edge. Samuel Eto'o does not have the razor-sharpness that the Champions League requires, not yet anyway. And the second option was Demba Ba who came on to no effect. Fernando Torres was not even on the bench.
It makes the next Champions League match, a trip to Steaua Bucharest on 1 October a game that, at the very least, Chelsea cannot afford to lose. Rafa Benitez's side dispatched the Swiss team in the semi-finals of the Europa League last season but they simply proved too obdurate for Mourinho's players tonight when Chelsea had precious few goalscoring chances despite the better possession.
“I'm happy with the three strikers for the rest of the season,” Mourinho said. “I'm happy. The players are the players, they're good professionals, they're trying their best every match. I can't complain about any of the three.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself, above all. Especially given the impact of Wayne Rooney, his summer target, for Manchester United on Tuesday night.
Oscar strikes to give Chelsea the lead on the stroke of half-time (Getty) Oscar strikes to give Chelsea the lead on the stroke of half-time (Getty) 
There was a debut tonight for Willian, whose last game was 2 August for his previous club Anzhi Makhachkala. There was a second consecutive start for Eto'o, who was playing for just the second time since 24 August. These new signings are under-cooked, and it showed. In all, Chelsea looked sluggish throughout their ranks.
Once again, Juan Mata found himself on the bench, along with John Terry. Chelsea, as custom befits, found the proverbial bus parked in front of the Basel goal and could not find a way round until virtually the last kick of the half.
They lack the pace on the counter-attack, especially when Eden Hazard is obliged to come short and occupy the playmaker's role. It is early days yet for Eto'o but he struggled to get into the game. As for Marco Van Ginkel, making his first competitive start for the club, he had a struggle finding his touch which affected his confidence and he was eventually replaced with John Obi Mikel.
The liveliest livewire of all before the break was the Egyptian winger Salah who is raw but direct and had the Chelsea defence scuttling back on a few occasions. With 30 minutes gone, David Luiz gave the ball away and Basel worked it beautifully through their opponents to get Salah free. He cut inside on his left foot and could not keep his shot on target.
Mourinho looked nonplussed by the performance. In his programme notes, he had asked the supporters to be patient with his four “kids”, in attack. In the event he selected the 32-year-old Eto'o and the three youngsters - Oscar, Hazard and Willian - who cost a combined £92n. These are young players but they are the kind of young players who are expected to make an immediate impact.
Salah's directness caused the Chelsea defence trouble (Getty) Salah's directness caused the Chelsea defence trouble (Getty)  
In the end, the Chelsea goal came just moments before half-time. Luiz surged forward and found Frank Lampard in an advanced position. His pass into the right channel was beautifully weighted  through the Basel back line into the stride of Oscar who dispatched a right-footed shot across Yann Sommer and into the far corner.
For Oscar it was his sixth goal in seven Champions League games. He struck the bar with a beautifully hit shot from the left side on 56 minutes; a hit that came from nothing and beat Sommer with its flight and dip. But that was just about as close as Chelsea came as the momentum sagged in the second half.
It took until 65 minutes for Mourinho to look down the touchline and call Mata over from the group warming up. Coming on for Willian, Chelsea's No 10 occupied the right side of the attacking three, allowing Oscar to continue in the central role.
There had been little pressure on Chelsea's goal until the equaliser and the chances, few that there had been, had been in the away side's area. Yet the first Basel goal was a beauty. There was a ball from the left from Behrang Safari that went from Marco Streller to substitute Matias Delgado and out to Salah on the right who beat Petr Cech.
Mourinho played his last hand in response. Off came Van Ginkel, replaced by Mikel, and, more surprisingly, Lampard, who had been at the heart of Chelsea's best work, also came off. His little flick to Eto'o on 69 minutes might have made a goal had the striker been sharper. Lampard was replaced by Demba Ba as Chelsea went to a 4-2-4 system with Eto'o pushed left.
Marco Streller scores the winner for Basel to stun Chelsea (Reuters) Marco Streller scores the winner for Basel to stun Chelsea (Reuters)  
Streller's winner was glanced in direct from a corner from the left with Gary Cahill unable to get past the big centre-forward. By then, Chelsea had run out of ideas and the manager whose name had been sung all around the ground earlier in the evening left to a smattering of booing.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Luiz, Cole; Van Ginkel (Mikel 75), Lampard (Ba 75); Willian (Mata 66), Oscar, Hazard; Eto'o.

Basel (4-4-2): Sommer; Voser, Schar, Ivanov, Safari; Salah (Xhaka 87), Diaz, Frei, Stocker (Ajeti 81); Sio (Delgado 65), Streller.

Man of the match Salah.
Match rating 7/10.
Referee D Orsato (Italy).
Attendance 38,000.

=================

Guardian:

Basel strike back twice to ruin Oscar's promising night for Chelsea

Chelsea 1 Basel 2

Chelsea
Emboaba Oscar 45
 
Basel
Mohamed Salah 71,
Marco Streller 82
 
Dominic Fifield at Stamford Bridge

Any fanciful hopes that José Mourinho would wave his magic wand and right all that was wrong in these parts have now been dispelled. A little over a month since he returned triumphantly the scale of the task he has taken on is clear: the final whistle prompted boos from the home support as the players from Basel celebrated a first win on English soil. Mourinho, head bowed, departed down the tunnel with defeat hard to digest.
Not since Besiktas back in October 2003 had Chelsea, under Claudio Ranieri, succumbed at home in the group stage of the Champions League. This was more than a jolt to the system. It was a migraine-inducing reminder of this team's fallibility, a position of relative authority having been surrendered wastefully; even attempts to salvage a point were rather unconvincing and laced with panic. The last time Mourinho had overseen Chelsea in this area in European competition, against Rosenborg six years ago, they had been jeered off and he was sacked within 48 hours. In that context Roman Abramovich's march across the pitch and into the home dressing room post-match seemed ominous.
At least there is an apparent acceptance within the hierarchy these days that this campaign will have moments like this, with Mourinho having been at pains to stress his is a young team in transition and a side, as he suggested again here, that "lacks maturity" to recover from setbacks. Whether that is fair, given Chelsea have claimed a European Cup and a Europa League in the last two seasons and that the average age of their starting line-up was almost 28, is open to question.
Yet the mental fragility was clear. Their performance through much of the opening period had been stodgy at best and Oscar's goal on the stroke of half-time was plucked just as the Swiss relaxed for the first time. But there was carelessness in an inability to capitalise on that, and the first coherent attacking move mustered by the visitors cut Chelsea to shreds.
The equaliser was slickly constructed, the ball shifted smartly from left to right at pace with home defenders lunging in but unable to intercept, before Mohamed Salah curled a delicious shot beyond Petr Cech. The winger had been pesky before that, tormenting Ashley Cole whenever offered an opportunity to charge into space beyond the full-back, and had scored in last season's Europa League semi-final here between these sides. That reward had been overtaken by a glut of subsequent home goals. Here it merely pepped Basel's resolve.
Eight minutes from time Salah broke again and Marco Streller's near-post attempt was deflected behind for a corner. Kay Voser's near-post delivery was flicked in by Streller, the striker having benefited from a tangle between Gary Cahill and Samuel Eto'o in the six-yard box that served to liberate him from his marker, and the Swiss had their win.
Their manager, Murat Yakin,, attempted to maintain his deadpan calm post-match but could not help but enthuse at his team's performance, and particularly their resilience and recovery after the interval while his players celebrated raucously with the stereo blaring in the nearby dressing room. His introduction of the much criticised Matías Delgado had added bite to their pursuit and his game-plan frustrated Chelsea throughout. Even Voser and Behrang Safari deserved credit for recovering some poise having been embarrassed in the early exchanges by the galloping Willian and Eden Hazard. The wingers promised much but delivered little while Eto'o is still rusty, not sharp enough yet to capitalise on the movement his brain is so willing him to instigate. Juan Mata was introduced at 1-0 and offered little while Fernando Torres was not even in the match-day squad. Oscar alone of the home players posed a persistent threat and, while he purred, Chelsea had threatened to prosper.
The Brazilian, one of the three players 22 or under whom Mourinho has selected – he had promised four "beautiful, young eggs" in the build-up – had conjured the lead from nothing while the Swiss contemplated some half-time satisfaction. David Luiz was permitted to amble forward, Frank Lampard collected possession and slipped a pass inside Safari and Oscar's first-time finish back across Yann Sommer and into the far corner was supremely accurate.
The playmaker enjoys this stage and had scored twice against Juventus in the corresponding fixture last season, only to see that lead hauled back to 2-2. It turned out to be worse this time, though he was unfortunate before the hour as he collected possession and arced a shot on to the crossbar from just outside the corner of the penalty area.
Memories of that flash of brilliance were dulled in defeat, a fourth match without a win exposing the work that must be done to re-establish this squad as contenders on all fronts. Mourinho rightly said that this result does not make progress into the group stage impossible but his team must surely claim all six remaining home points available and, potentially, also win in Basel in their penultimate game. Rafael Benítez's side did that in last season's Europa League. The boos that pursued the home players down the tunnel here were reminiscent of the general mood under the Spaniard; things were not supposed to be as grim with Mourinho back in charge but reality is biting.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/gallery/2013/sep/18/champions-league-chelsea-basel-gallery

========================

Telegraph:

Chelsea 1 Basle 2

By Henry Winter, at Stamford Bridge

This was not in the brochure. This was not in the “Welcome Home Jose’’ script. This was embarrassing. Basle are a decent side with an outstanding individual in Mohamed Salah but Chelsea expected to enjoy a smooth, winning start to their Group E campaign.
Instead, as the final whistle signalled Chelsea’s first group-stage home defeat since 2003, Mourinho marched straight down the tunnel while Roman Abramovich, peering down from the emperor’s box, smiled wanly and shook his head.
Ten minutes later, Abramovich strolled across the pitch, accompanied by his minders, and headed towards the dressing-room. This was not what Abramovich and the Chelsea faithful had expected when Mourinho returned. This was more like the limp end to his first reign exactly six years ago.
After Mourinho’s pre-match talk, the headlines inevitably noted that Chelsea were left with egg on their faces. Mourinho could not point to inexperience or an over-reliance on “beautiful young eggs” as the average age was 27. Chelsea had enough possession, a fraction under 60 per cent, and enough chances, with 11 attempts on goal and nine corners, but badly lacked a cutting edge.
Samuel Eto’o ran hard but never showed that burst of pace required to get behind Basle’s well-drilled backline. Demba Ba came on but did little. Fernando Torres did not even make the bench. Manchester United’s success in persuading Wayne Rooney to stay looks even more damaging to Chelsea now.
The decision to loan Romelu Lukaku to Everton looks even odder. Lukaku is still learning his trade, and some question his true potential, but his performances for West Brom last season highlighted his ability. Mourinho erred in not keeping Lukaku.
The balance to the squad is wrong particularly between the ratio of finishing to finesse. Chelsea have so much creativity in Oscar, Eden Hazard and Willian, who all started, and Juan Mata who came off the bench. They just need more strikers.
After taking the lead through the excellent Oscar just before the break, Chelsea failed to go for the jugular, allowing Basle to counter-attack. Chelsea’s central midfield of Frank Lampard and Marco van Ginkel were bypassed as Salah scored.
Then Marco Streller headed in, exploiting Gary Cahill’s collision with Eto’o, and also benefiting from Chelsea’s failure to station anyone on the post. The Cobham debriefing on the second-half defending could be intense, focusing on a failure to respond quickly enough in midfield and then at a set piece.
Chelsea, who now travel to Steaua Bucharest and Schalke next month, can recover in Group E, but they will curse this second-half collapse. At half-time, such a denouement seemed improbable. The game had been subdued, very stop-start, with Chelsea failing to find a way through Basle’s strong defence for 44 minutes.
Some attention rested on Salah and his high-speed duel with Ashley Cole. Salah initially got the better of the England full-back, running in behind on to Valentin Stocker’s pass midway through the half. Salah cut inside, and shot left-footed but the ball almost disappeared down gangway No 11 in the Matthew Harding Lower.
Cole gradually imposed himself on Salah, closing the winger and eventually forcing him to switch flanks but the Egyptian international, who had so impressed against Spurs and Chelsea in the Europa League last season, came good in the second half.
A few chances arose and disappeared very quickly before Oscar’s intervention. Hazard shot wide. Giovanni Sio had a low shot held by Petr Cech. Cahill had a volley blocked. As half-time loomed, Chelsea produced a counter-attack that caught Basle out before they could get into their set defensive positions.
David Luiz began the move which angled from left to right, picking out Lampard, who played the ball into the path of Oscar. The Brazilian, arriving at speed, sent the ball right-footed past Yann Sommer. It was a fine, flowing goal out of keeping with a stuttering half.
Chelsea were on top for the first period of the second half, making their sudden demise even stranger. Chelsea had good chances to extend their lead through an Oscar shot, two Branislav Ivanovic headers and a Hazard effort.
The sight of Mata warming up had delighted the Chelsea fans and the Spaniard soon arrived for Willian after 67 minutes. Mata joined with Ivanovic and Lampard in making a chance for Eto’o, who seemed surprised by Lampard’s delivery and the moment was lost.
Basle punished Chelsea. After 71 minutes, Mourinho’s side were exposed by a great counter-attack, launched by Behrang Safari. The ball flew from Matias Delgado to Streller, who touched the ball across for Salah to beat Cech with a firm shot. Mourinho twisted again, sending on Ba and John Obi Mikel for Van Ginkel and Lampard. It was a surprise to see Lampard, the captain, withdrawn. He passed the armband to Ivanovic, who promptly handed it on to Cech.
With nine minutes remaining, Basle forced a corner after Luiz intervened to stop a link-up between Salah and Streller, As the ball curled over in front of the Shed, Streller made his move, losing Cahill and clearly targeting the near-post which had nobody on sentry duty. Streller made powerful contact, sending the ball between Cech and his right-hand upright.
Chelsea strived hard for an equaliser and Eto’o went close but Sommer would not be beaten. At the end, Murat Yakin and his players celebrated in front of their fans. Salah waved to well-wishers dotted around the ground. They had only seven attempts on goal but deserved all the points because of their belief, tactics and commitment to the end.
This may prove the shock Chelsea need to energise them, following their worst start to a Premier League season in the Abramovich era, but the failure to get a striker – or retain Lukaku – looks very, very expensive.

=====================

Mail:

Chelsea 1 Basle 2: Mourinho demanded eggs-elence... but Jose's toothless side crack up in dreadful start to Euro campaign

By Matt Barlow

Four without a win for Chelsea, and if Rafa Benitez were still in charge they would be throwing eggs, not extending metaphors about them.
Jose Mourinho’s popularity and credit in the bank will naturally ensure he gets a little longer than Benitez, but here was substance to the theory that this challenge is going to be a true test of his special powers.
His team were flat in the first half but stole the lead seconds before half-time through Oscar, only to surrender two goals in 11 minutes.
It was only the second time one of Mourinho’s Chelsea teams have lost at Stamford Bridge, the first having been defeat by Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League in his first incarnation.
Second time around, it has taken only three games, and has come against a team who can’t compare to Barca. Yes, Basle are decent and under-rated by some, but they are not world-beaters and conceded five over two legs to Chelsea in the Europa League last season.
Mourinho said his team lacked ‘maturity’ and ‘personality’, two of their great characteristics when he was last here, and accused them of getting the ‘shakes’ when the Swiss champions launched the recovery.
It was like last season under Benitez when anxiety took hold inside the Bridge once the excellent Mohamed Salah curled a left-foot shot beyond Petr Cech to level the game.
Mourinho said the players must share the blame for Basle’s winning goal as Marco Streller was allowed to muscle his way past Gary Cahill and Samuel Eto’o to the front post and glance home a corner from close range in the 82nd minute.
With Roman Abramovich peering down from his executive suite, Willian did not impress on debut after signing for £32million and nor did Eto’o, at 32, look as though he was about to roll back the years and provide the goals to power this Chelsea team.
Mourinho was quick to defend Eto’o, blaming his years in Russia at Anzhi Makhachkala for dulling his motivation and instinct but insisted the former Barcelona and Inter Milan striker remained world class.
Some Chelsea fans booed their team at the end, a noise Mourinho cannot be at all familiar with.
But times have changed since he left and four games without a win was usually close to a crisis in the culture he left behind.
He said himself in a pre-match briefing dominated by his quotes about playing the mother hen role to his young hatchlings that another foray into the Europa League was not acceptable for a club of this stature.
But this defeat leaves Mourinho on the back foot with tricky away tests to follow at Steaua Bucharest, where Chelsea were beaten in the first leg in the Europa League last season, and then Schalke.
Thus far, his team have beaten only Hull and Aston Villa and goals are not coming easily, despite a wealth of creative players available in support of the centre forward.
Mourinho maintained his  composure for most of the night, only once or twice becoming slightly  agitated on the touchline, perhaps in an effort to generate more urgency from his players.
Of the attacking players, only Oscar appears to be thriving under Mourinho. He scored a goal of simple beauty to give his team the lead, a sweet strike, arrowed into the corner of the net after a pass from Frank Lampard.
Ten minutes after the restart, the Brazilian almost extended the lead, out of the blue, with a swerving and dipping strike from wide on the left which crashed against the bar.
He was close again from a nearly identical position moments later. This time the shot flew narrowly wide and Mourinho spun on his heel. It may have been that he knew another goal would be needed to finish this off.
Mourinho threw on Juan Mata and Demba Ba in an effort to turn the momentum. Off came captain Lampard but Mata and Ba had little impact and there was no Fernando Torres on the bench.
The £50million record signing was rested, although whether he actually needed a rest is open to question since Torres has started only two of six under Mourinho, came on for the last 21 minutes at Everton on Saturday and did not play for Spain during the international break. Chelsea finished with Mata and Oscar in midfield, either side of John Mikel Obi. It was adventurous but ultimately it changed nothing.
There were 19 minutes to go when Basle equalised. A swift move cut through Chelsea’s right-hand side and a smart exchange of passes worked the ball across the edge of the penalty box where Salah completed it with a delicious finish.
Then came Streller’s header, which silenced Stamford Bridge.
Basle goalkeeper Yann Sommer protected the lead with a decent save from Eto’o in stoppage time and that was that.
To add insult to injury, Benitez’s Napoli side had just beaten Borussia Dortmund.
Mourinho darted down the tunnel with egg on his face and those Chelsea fans still in the ground booed. Abramovich peered down on the Swiss celebrations before stalking around the perimeter of the pitch and into the dressing room. It wasn’t supposed to be like this any more.

Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Luiz, Cole, Oscar, van Ginkel (Mikel 75), Lampard (Ba 76), Willian (Mata 67), Eto'o, Hazard.
Subs Not Used: Schwarzer, De Bruyne, Terry, Azpilicueta.
Booked: van Ginkel .
Goals: Oscar 45.

Basle: Sommer, Voser, Schar, Ivanov, Safari, Salah (Xhaka 88), Diaz, Frei, Stocker (Ajeti 83), Sio (Delgado 65), Streller.
Subs Not Used: Vailati, Philipp Degen, David Degen, Sauro.
Booked: Diaz.
Goals: Salah 71, Streller 82.

Att: 38,000
Ref: Daniele Orsato (Italy).

=================

Mirror:
 
Chelsea 1-2 Basel: Shell shocker for Mourinho as his 'beautiful young eggs' crack in Champions League
 
By Martin Lipton
      
Oscar gave Blues the lead just before half-time but the yolk is on the hosts as Salah and Streller goals stun Stamford Bridge

The look on Roman Abramovich’s face told the story, even more than the jeers that cascaded around Stamford Bridge.
A short, rueful grin, but eyes as hard as stone. Unimpressed. Deeply unimpressed.
Six years ago, the Russian peered down on a side that could not beat Rosenborg and decided enough was enough.
At least - you would think - Abramovich will not be calling Jose Mourinho to demand a summit meeting on Thursday, will not be signing another mutual non-disclosure severance pact.
Both Abramovich and Mourinho have grown up since then. Mended the broken bridges. Agreed on the path forward.
But when Chelsea fail to win four on the spin, it represents an issue, if not a crisis.
When they lose two on the bounce, managers start to develop an anxiety rash.
The actions of the past, especially from a man as impulsive as Abramovich, condition the way you anticipate the future.
Just ask AVB, Roberto Di Matteo and Big Phil.
And while Mourinho has prepared the ground for a transition season, arguing that he is building for the longer term and  nurturing a squad full of "beautiful young eggs", he also acknowledges that winning remains an absolute priority.
Losing to Basel, a side conquered by Rafa Benitez’s men in the Europa League last May, was definitely not in the equation.
Mourinho, famously, lost just once at home in his first three-year spell, and defeat to Barcelona is not a badge of shame.
Now, though, he has tasted SW6 defeat, deserved defeat, after just 270 minutes of his return and to a side that should not be in Chelsea’s class, despite their feats against Manchester United and Spurs in recent years.
Marco Streller’s header, pulling away from Samuel Eto’o - whose contribution at his own end matched, for all the wrong reasons, the one he made at the other - consigned Chelsea to their first group stage home reverse since Claudio Ranieri’s team subsided against Besiktas in 2003.
But arguably more worrying, more damaging than the result, as Chelsea never got to grips with jet-heeled Mohamed Salah, was the lack of cohesion, drive, purpose and imagination.
This was reminiscent of the sort of displays that saw the Russian’s rift with Mourinho explode so damagingly last time round - and then they just WON too boringly for the owner.
Even when Oscar, slipped in on goal by skipper Frank Lampard after David Luiz stepped out from the back in the last minute of the first half, smashed them ahead, Chelsea were unable to settle or really impose themselves.
Having monopolised possession in the first half to no real effect.
Willian making little impact, Marco Van Ginkel offering far more physicality than finesse, it should have been a belated platform.
This was where Eden Hazard should have shone, rather than shrunk.
Where the experience and instincts of Eto’o were supposed to make a difference.
Where another summer of expensive imports was designed to ensure no repeat of last term’s group stage debacle.
Instead, to the consternation of the fans, the disbelief and frustration of Abramovich and the angst of the - still? - Special One, they capitulated.
Yes, only the woodwork denied Oscar a second, from 25 yards, Branislav Ivanovic headed straight at the keeper, Hazard blazed over when he should have done better.
But even before that, Salah’s pace had unhinged Chelsea far too easily, Streller should have converted Behrang Safari’s low cross.
And for the second time in less than a week, Mourinho’s changes served to confuse rather than improve, the arrival of Juan Mata sparking the leveller, the departure of Frank Lampard as he went with two up top leaving them exposed to the sucker punch.
Basle’s equaliser came from a move of infinitely better quality than anything Chelsea could put together.
Safari sauntered down the left to play into the danger area, where a one-touch interchange between substitute Matias Delgado and Streller presented Salah the opportunity to sweep home.
Worse was to come, eight minutes from time, when Chelsea - Ivanovic was suffering as badly as Cole - left themselves horribly unbalanced.
Only a terrific block by Luiz prevented Streller firing home when Salah escaped behind Ivanovic.
But when Delgado played the resulting corner in to the near post, the Basle skipper was far more purposeful and determined than anybody in a Blue shirt as he got the touch that befuddled Petr Cech.
Some huffing and puffing followed, but no way back.
Not good enough Jose. Not by a long chalk.

=====================

Express:

Chelsea 1 - Basel 2: Second-half Swiss fightback gives Jose Mourinho the Blues

JOSE MOURINHO was left to rue missed opportunities as two second half goals from Basel condemned Chelsea to a 2-1 loss against the Swiss side at Stamford Bridge this evening.

Ben Jefferson

After a frustrating first-half Oscar gave the Blues the lead just before half-time and Chelsea were looking comfortable midway through the second period.
But a 71st minute equaliser from Mohamed Salah gave Basel hope and they got a winner from Marco Streller with eight minutes remaining.
Mourinho once again omitted Juan Mata preferring to start with Frank Lampard and Oscar in the middle of the park.
Willian showed some nice touches for Chelsea, who despite dominating possession, could not make the final ball count in the early stages.
Both Samuel Eto'o and Eden Hazard caused problems for the Swiss side but a failure to make their dominance count began to frustrate the Blues as the half wore on.
And Chelsea could have been made to pay with 29 minutes gone when Salah drove down the right, before cutting inside and curling a shot harmlessly over the bar when a better finish could of put Basel ahead against the run of play.
Chelsea's patience was finally reward just one minute before half-time when Lampard got on the ball in midfield and slipped a perfectly-timed disguised pass into the path of Oscar, who made no mistake from 15 yards out.
Two second-half goals condemned Chelsea to an unlikely defeat against Basel
The sense of relief around Stamford Bridge at the break wasn't shared by Jose Mourinho who was unimpressed with his side's efforts and demanded improvement in the second period.
But Basel did not get the memo, and came out fighting, only for their ambition to almost work against them when Oscar got away from his man and hit the bar with a wonderful curling shot in the 65th minute.
Oscar was at the forefront again six minute later when he put Hazard into space with Chelsea looking in total control, but the Belgian's shot failed to test Yann Sommer in the Basel goal.
Mata replaced Willian to heartfelt applause and moments later Branislav Ivanovic was unlucky not to double Chelsea's lead when he saw his header cleared off the Basel line.
But Basel equalised against the run of play in the 71st minute when Chelsea failed to deal with Streller on the left and Salah expertly curled a shot into Petr Cech's far post.
And, sensing an upset, Basel went after Chelsea on the break, getting their reward in the 82nd minute when Streller got ahead of Gary Cahill from a corner and headed in at the near post to leave the Blues ruing missed opportunities.

=================

Star:

Jose Mourinho's Basel faulty after Champions League shocker

CHELSEA fell to a Champions League group stage home defeat for the first time in 30 matches on a shocker of a night for Jose Mourinho.

By David Woods

Six years ago to the day when Mourinho saw his men struggle to a dire 1-1 draw with Norwegian minnows Rosenborg, the Blues made that result look good in this opening Group E game.
Two days after the Rosenborg upset - watched by fewer than 25,000 at Stamford Bridge - Mourinho parted company with the west Londoners.
Wrong There is no suggestion, of course, something similar will happen tomorrow, but just six games into the second coming of The Special One, something already looks very wrong at Chelsea.
In their last four games, Chelsea have lost to Basel and Everton and also to Bayern Munich in a UEFA Super Cup penalty shoot-out, with a goalless draw at Manchester United the only positive.
Mourinho wanted to sign United's Wayne Rooney this summer, and you can see why, because his team lack a top-class striker.
Oscar gave the Blues the lead in the 45th minute before Mohamed Salah and Marco Streller stunned Stamford Bridge with goals in the final 20 minutes to complete a remarkable turnaround.
Roman Abramovich, who made up with Mourinho to invite him back to the Bridge, was spotted shaking his head after the final whistle. Mourinho was down the tunnel almost as quickly as Egyptian winger Salah, who also scored at the Bridge last season in a 3-1 Europa League semi-final defeat, when Chelsea ran out 5-2 winners on aggregate.
“Mourinho wanted to sign United's Wayne Rooney this summer, and you can see why, because his team lack a top-class striker”
Brazilian midfielder Oscar has two goals, and is leading scorer - with the only forward to have netted this season being Fernando Torres, in the Bayern match.
Dig You have to go back 30 matches to October 2003 for Chelsea's last group stage home defeat, to Besiktas, who won 2-0. On the eve of this match, Mourinho had talked about hatching the eggs in his squad, after laughing at a reminder of how he had moaned six years ago about not being able to buy the Grade A ones at Waitrose.
At the time, it had been a dig at Abramovich for not allowing him to buy big and although the Russian did sanction the £30m arrival of midfielder Willian, you sensed the capture of Samuel Eto'o - when the Rooney deal did not come off - was not what Mourinho was after.
Certainly, the Portuguese coach was left with egg on his face as his men cracked against the unfancied Swiss champions.
It was a pretty dire opening, but Chelsea did go ahead just before halftime with their first shot on target. David Luiz found skipper Frank Lampard, who rolled it into the box for Oscar to drill a low shot across Yann Sommer and inside the far post from about 15 yards.
Mourinho did not smile or react and he was right not to, for after the break his men showed little improvement.
He did clap when Oscar - one of the few decent performers in a blue shirt - struck the bar from 22 yards.
Then Basel seemed to realise The Special One's side were nothing special after all. His defence failed to deal with Behrang Safari's ball in from the left and Streller teed up Salah, who curled a left-footed shot into the far corner. Then Safari's corner found Streller, who glanced a header in at the near post. Eto'o had a late chance to equalise, but using his right foot - when it cried out for a left-footed effort - lifted it straight into keeper Sommer's hands. Even Juan Mata could not lift Chelsea after coming on.
At the final whistle there were a few boos - not something Mourinho would have expected when he returned.
Now come trips to Fulham in the league on Saturday and to League One Swindon in the Capital One Cup four days later.
The yolk could be on Mourinho if things don't pick up and quick!

CHELSEA: Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Luiz, Cole, Oscar, Van Ginkel (Mikel 75), Lampard (Ba 76), Willian (Mata 67), Eto'o, Hazard. Subs: Schwarzer, De Bruyne, Terry, Azpilicueta.

BASEL: Sommer, Voser, Schar, Ivanov, Safari, Salah (Xhaka 88), Diaz, Frei, Stocker (Ajeti 83), Sio (Delgado 65), Streller. Subs: Vailati, Philipp Degen, David Degen, Sauro. Booked: Diaz.
Referee: Daniele Orsato (Italy).