Stoke 3-0

Independent:
Chelsea 3 Stoke City 0
Frank Lampard keeps ‘impossible dream' alive

Jose Mourinho might have given up on the League title but Chelsea return to the top of the table thanks to an outstanding display from their long-serving midfielder
Steve Tongue 

A week after Jose Mourinho announced that it was “impossible” for Chelsea to win the Premier League amid the disgruntlement of defeat at Crystal Palace, his team returned to the top of the table, albeit only a point ahead of Liverpool, who play at West Ham this afternoon.
Manchester City, a point further back and with an extra game in hand, remain best placed but Liverpool’s home games against the two other contenders – City next Sunday and Chelsea three weeks today – still hold the key to the outcome of an unpredictable season.
Not that Mourinho was prepared to change his assessment significantly, even if leading 3-0 with fully 20 minutes left thanks to goals from Mohamed Salah, the outstanding Frank Lampard and Willian allowed thoughts and tactics to turn towards making up the 3-1 deficit in Tuesday’s second leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Paris St-Germain.
Chelsea will at the very least approach it in good heart and with the full support of a noisy home crowd who saw them overwhelm a disappointing Stoke City; the total of 18 shots to four in favour of the hosts was a fair reflection of the balance of play.
“If we concede one against Paris or have a clean sheet we have a chance, so it’s important to defend well,” the manager said. As for the position at the top, he added: “The situation is the same. The table is again fake, with lots of matches in hand.” With Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore standing at the back of the room, he added a new criticism: “I don’t think it’s the best image, playing matches in the last midweek of the season.”
What would have made Mourinho happier would have been a goal for Fernando Torres, who said in an Independent interview this week that he wanted to make himself Mourinho’s best option on a regular basis. Allowed a start, unlike last Wednesday, while Eden Hazard and Oscar were rested, he ran willingly but still without registering a first Premier League goal since early January, or coming close.
Fortunately the Egyptian Salah, starting for the first time, and Andre Schürrle were more effective down the flanks. Nemanja Matic, ineligible for the Champions League, was back in midfield and much more solid than David Luiz, which crucially allowed Lampard to do much more of what he should have done last week at Selhurst Park, bursting forward in support of the attack. Despite the changes further forward, Mourinho stuck with his now regular back four, having tempted fate by praising them so fulsomely before the “joke” goals conceded in Paris. They were untroubled almost all game, Petr Cech having only one straightforward save to make, when Peter Odemwingie, after four goals in three games, chanced his arm from 20 yards.
Stoke, revitalised under Mark Hughes, know they have much to play for despite this result: a highest finish for almost 40 years; most points, wins and goals in a Premier League season; even ending the campaign as highest placed Midlands side for what would be the first time ever.
Already they have completed more passes in a season than under Tony Pulis’s more fundamentalist regime. They were not averse to longer balls to try to turn the Chelsea defence but the confidence gained from three successive victories was only in evidence briefly before the home side began pushing them back. “I was disappointed because in recent weeks we’ve been better than that,” Hughes said.
Lampard was the key figure, even though not involved in the opening goal. In the 10th minute he took part three times in the move that set up up Torres, who dragged a shot wide from 20 yards – an early indication that this might be one of those days when things just did not go his way. Asmir Begovic pulled off the first of several saves, this one from Willian’s deflected shot and then redeemed himself after a bad clearance by smothering Torres’s effort from close in as Erik Pieters unwisely chested down a cross. The goal Chelsea deserved arrived just after the half-hour mark and could be said to have stemmed from smart work by a young ballboy, who caught a Stoke clearance to applause and immediately gave it to Cesar Azpilicueta. His throw-in sent Matic to the byline to cut back a low pass that found Salah for a left-footed shot that flew past Begovic’s outstretched leg.
It would have been 2-0 at the interval had Ivanovic pushed his head forward a fraction later before turning Lampard’s centre into the net. The offside decision was about as close as it was possible to be.
Two half-time substitutions indicated Hughes’s displeasure with his team’s performance while the introduction of Hazard only 13 minutes after the resumption suggested Mourinho was anxious about the single-goal margin. He need not have been. The Belgian’s first intervention, twisting and turning before supplying Salah, led to a penalty and the overdue second goal.
Andy Wilkinson clearly brought down the Egyptian and although Begovic beat out Lampard’s spot-kick, the midfielder beat him to the rebound to score.
The crowd were willing a goal for Torres, but the best he could do was taking a defender away as Willian curled in a fine third goal to relax the manager and those supporters who may believe their team are not entirely out of contention yet.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Matic, Lampard (Luiz, 70); Willian (Cole, 77), Salah,  Schürrle (Hazard, 58); Torres.

Stoke (4-2-3-1): Begovic; Cameron (Wilkinson, 46) , Shawcross, Wilson, Pieters; Nzonzi, Whelan; Odemwingie, Palacios (Adam, 46), Arnautovic; Crouch (Walters, 77).

Referee: Lee Probert
Man of the match: Lampard (Chelsea)

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Observer:

Chelsea 3 Stoke 0
Willian rounds off comfortable win against Stoke City to take Chelsea top
Paul Doyle at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea's inability to lure a deadly striker in the last transfer window has complicated their quest for honours but here the two players they did sign in January were instrumental in sending José Mourinho's team back to the top of the Premier League. Nemanja Matic bestrode midfield with mighty authority while Mohamed Salah marked his first start by scoring a goal and creating another. Ultimately the destiny of the title could be determined by how often other Chelsea players can compensate for their forwards' bluntness.
Fernando Torres started up front against Stoke after being omitted from the midweek defeat to Paris Saint-Germain but his performance was hardly sufficient to convince Chelsea not to spend heavily on a new forward in the summer. The more immediate matter for Mourinho here, of course, was to get his team back to winning ways after three defeats in their past five matches.
Having spent most of the season talking down his team's chances of winning the title, the manager seemed to realise that a new psychological ploy was required, so railed against negativity before the visit of Mark Hughes's men, who arrived in buoyant mood having won four of their past five games to banish relegation fears.
Stoke made a vibrant start but Chelsea, accused by Mourinho of being too timid during last week's defeat at Crystal Palace, were not prepared to be pushed around on their own patch and soon took control. Torres was given the game's first chance when, in the third minute, Willian won possession in midfield and threaded an inviting ball through to the forward. Alas, the Spaniard no longer has the pace that he used to and was nudged off the ball by Marc Wilson before Asmir Begovic tidied up. The muscularity of the general play was not matched by the finishing, which was feeble by both sides early on. Torres was presented with another opening in the ninth minute when Matic nicked the ball to him after Chelsea's high pressing had again forced Stoke to cough up possession, but the Spaniard's 20-yard shot hurtled wide.
André Schürrle was guilty of a particularly lame finish moments later, offering Begovic an easy save after being put through. Then Branislav Ivanovic nodded a weak effort wide from a corner.
Peter Odemwingie fired off Stoke's first shot from long range in the 13th minute but that, too, was soft and posed no problem for Petr Cech.
Begovic had to be more sprightly in the 18th minute to turn away a curling effort from the edge of the area by Willian. Chelsea were now well on top – all they were missing was a cutting edge. Wilson almost gifted them a way through when he negligently chested a cross into the path of Torres, but Begovic hurled himself at the striker's feet to smother the danger.
Stoke's resistance eventually gave way. After a throw-in on the left in the 32nd minute, Matic shrugged off Odemwingie and banged a low ball across the face of goal to Salah, who lashed it into the net from 15 yards.
Hughes introduced two substitutes for the second half and one of them, Charlie Adam, was quick to make an impact – on Schürrle's foot. The midfielder, making his first appearance since being banned for stamping on the Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud, caught the German with a late tackle.
Schürrle was not seriously injured but was soon replaced by Eden Hazard anyway as Mourinho sought the killer goal. The Belgian immediately showed Adam how to make the right sort of impact, artfully rolling the ball into the path of Salah, who was chopped down by Andy Wilkinson. Begovic saved Frank Lampard's penalty but not the rebound.
Chelsea beat Liverpool to the signing of Salah from Basel in January thanks to the money they generated from the sale of Juan Mata, and that could yet have ramifications for the title. "We sold a great player who was in the best moment of his career and bought a kid from a different habitat," Mourinho said. "An Egyptian playing in Switzerland, we knew it would take time for him to adapt. But already you can see the connection between him and the crowd. They like him."
His connection with his team-mates was obvious too. With Matic laying a solid platform, Salah, Willian and Hazard darted around in all directions and at times Stoke seemed caught in a whirlwind. Willian eventually blew them away, curling a sumptuous shot beyond Begovic from the edge of the area in the 72nd minute.
With his side back on top of the league, Mourinho reverted to talking down his team's chances of staying there. "The table is again fake," he said, insisting the fact that Liverpool and Manchester City have games in hands means they still have the advantage.

Match rating: 6/10

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Telegraph:

Chelsea 3 Stoke City 0: match report
By  Jason Burt, Stamford Bridge

“You have to adapt. If I go to a wedding I don’t go in jeans, right?” Jose Mourinho said. But if you play a Stoke City side that is safe from relegation and in danger of switching off – as manager Mark Hughes admitted after this insipid performance – then you can afford to turn up in carpet slippers.
Ahead of Paris St-Germain this was a PSG performance for Chelsea: a Pretty Straightforward Game. But it was a perfect run-out for Mourinho’s players before Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final second leg.
Chelsea had better not turn up in jeans for that one – Mourinho’s analogy was about how they had arrived mentally ill equipped for last Saturday’s defeat away to Crystal Palace – as it will be an occasion for best bib and tucker. Suited and booted or Chelsea will be booted out.
There was a bit of booting yesterday, or at least seemed to be with Charlie Adam again appearing to demonstrate an uncanny ability to catch his opponent late as André Schürrle found out to his cost as the Scot stood on the top of his foot.
But Mourinho was not going to engage with that. “I like aggressive football and I can’t go inside the player’s brain to make the decision whether the intention was to hurt or not to hurt,” he said dismissively.
The Portuguese did not want to pick a fight, and Hughes was equally emphatic. He had not seen the incident and no one had brought it to his intention. Maybe the Football Association will take a look at it.
This was emphatically restorative for Chelsea who, almost apologetically, also returned to the top of the Premier League – at least until the final whistle today at Upton Park.
But Chelsea are still fighting at the top despite the sense of despondency that Mourinho has projected of late in his attacks on his attackers. Fernando Torres again drew a blank – and the kind of backhand praise that must hurt a £50 million striker.
“As normally, he gave everything he can,” Mourinho said damningly. “A pity he did not score a goal because strikers need goals. But he participated; he worked hard.”
And he should have scored. His biggest moment came with the game goalless. Foolishly Erik Pieters attempted to chest the ball to Asmir Begovic and it dropped short. Torres reacted quickly to gain possession but his shot was quickly smothered by Begovic from close-range.
Mourinho’s face, as he sank back into his seat, betrayed his frustration. Later he was sanguine. “We deserved the three points and go back to victories,” he said. “Important for the Premier League but one thing is to start the match on Tuesday after another defeat, the other is to start with a victory.”
Chelsea are at home then also. Despite their problems away from Stamford Bridge, it is five league victories in a row and 17 unanswered goals. PSG will be aware of that.
Mourinho rested Oscar; rested Eden Hazard, who came on as a second-half substitute; and gave a chance to January signing Mohamed Salah to make his full debut and shine – and he did, claiming his second goal for the club with aplomb.
There was also another goal for Frank Lampard, a landmark one at that, his 250th in club football, although his penalty kick, after substitute Andy Wilkinson had scythed down Salah, was saved. Lampard hammered home the rebound with Begovic grounded.
That doubled Chelsea’s advantage and, frankly, it was game over. But then it had been game over from the moment they had taken the lead, which came after Nemanja Matic had cleverly rolled Geoff Cameron from a throw-in and crossed low. Salah’s confident, powerful first-time shot skimmed off Begovic’s boot and into the net.
“We did not ask enough questions of a good Chelsea team who did not have to get out of second gear to take the game away from us,” Hughes later lamented before saying he would “address” it if his players were switching off.
Stoke were curiously flat having attempted to start brightly. But nothing happened for them. Nothing. Instead it was simply a question of how many more Chelsea would score. There was just the one more with Hazard involved, as he had been for the penalty, sliding a pass to Salah who moved it on to Willian.
Wilkinson was again culpable, standing off the Brazilian who strolled on, shifted the ball and curled his right-footed shot around the defender and high beyond Begovic.
There was a late appearance for a heavily-bearded Ashley Cole, brought on in left midfield. It was his first game since Jan 11 – the last time Torres scored in the league – while Mourinho even fielded post-match questions on John Terry’s future.
“The club want him to stay, he wants to stay, so normally he stays,” Mourinho said of the prospect of the defender agreeing a new contract when his current deal expires. It sounded straightforward enough. A bit like this fixture.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1) Cech 6; Ivanovic 6, Cahill 7, Terry 6, Azpilicueta 6; Matic 7, Lampard 6 (Luiz 70); Salah 7, Willian 8 (Cole 78), Schurrle 6 (Hazard 59); Torres 5. Subs Oscar, Ba, Schwarzer, Kalas.

Stoke (4-2-3-1) Begovic 6, Pieters 5, Wilson 4, Shawcross 6, Cameron 4 (Wilkinson 45); Whelan 5, Palacios 4 (Adam 45); Arnautovic 5, Nzonzi 5, Odemwingie 3; Crouch 4 (Walters 78). Subs Munesia, Guidetti, Etherington, Sorenson.

Referee L Probert (Wiltshire).

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Times:

Chelsea 3 Stoke City 0: All-change Chelsea stroll back to top
John Aizlewood

As the old saying goes ‘you can only beat what’s in front of you’. Faced with a wretched Stoke side, Chelsea cruised home by three goals and have now kept eight consecutive home clean sheets. Stoke offered no response of any kind and seem to have already knocked off for the season. The hosts have certainly had harder games; they will surely have had harder training sessions.
The three points returned Chelsea to the Premier League summit, but manager Jose Mourinho was still maintaining his twinkle-eyed insistence that the title is beyond his team. “The table is fake,” he insisted. “Teams playing games in hand on the last week of the season isn’t a situation adapted to high-level football.”
With a two-goal Champions League deficit to overcome on Tuesday, Oscar, Eden Hazard and David Luiz were exiled to the bench, while Ramires, who completed his domestic suspension yesterday evening, should also return to face Paris Saint-Germain. Nemanja Matic and Mohamed Salah are ineligible in the Champions League; they both started at Stamford Bridge. Such ferocious plate-juggling meant that much hinged on the performances of Frank Lampard, Fernando Torres, Andre Schurrle and Willian, but such was Stoke’s feebleness that none enhanced or reduced his prospects.
“Today gave us self-esteem,” explained Mourinho. “To face Paris after a defeat is one thing, but to face them after a victory is better. If we keep a clean sheet that will be perfect, but we have to adapt to the situation: if I go to a wedding I don’t wear jeans.”
Having dropped only one point in their previous five games, but not having taken one at Stamford Bridge since 1984, Stoke arrived with nothing to play for. And how it showed.
“I expected better,” admitted the Stoke manager, Mark Hughes. “We can’t carry as many players as we did today. Chelsea didn’t have to get out of second gear. I hadn’t seen this coming and we’ll have to jump on it straight away. This is a wake-up call.”
Initially, though, Chelsea were sluggish. A frustrated Lampard and Matic found themselves edging further and further forwards. The Schurrle, Willian and Lampard midfield were less than the sum of their parts and consequentially, Fernando Torres found himself isolated. “He participated,” noted Mourinho archly. “He gave everything he can and he won with the team.”
Stoke passed neatly in unthreatening areas, but their horizons were limited and the more the game progressed the more Chelsea oozed menace.
 Nature took its course just after the half-hour. Matic controlled a throw-in on the left, shrugged off Peter Odemwingie’s powder-puff challenge, hurtled to the byline and crossed low. The unattended Salah met it first time to handsomely thunder his second Chelsea goal past Asmir Begovic. “He’s a kid from a different habitat,” said Mourinho of the Egyptian winger. “He needs time to settle. Next season he’ll be a real player.”
Hughes, clearly unimpressed that Petr Cech had been neither tested nor troubled in the first half, made two substitutions at the break but the visitors remained somnambulant. Chelsea surrendered possession and they surrendered cheap free kicks, but they never looked like surrendering their lead. Soon, Mourinho had seen enough. Shurrle hobbled off following an unpleasant challenge by Charlie Adam - “I like aggressive football, but I can’t get in people’s minds to tell their intentions,” shrugged Mourinho – and on came Hazard.
Almost instantly, the lambent Belgian’s penalty-area backheel took out three Stoke defenders before reaching Salah. The winger sprinted for goal, only to be crudely upended by Andy Wilkinson. Lampard’s penalty was hard but straight at Begovic. The loose ball cannoned off the Bosnian, Lampard reacted quicker than the dawdling Stoke defence and Chelsea were home and dry.
From there, it was merely a question of goal difference and soon, Chelsea added a third when Hazard expertly found Willian 20 yards out. Ryan Shawcross unaccountably retreated, allowing Willian the time and space to curl an exquisite third around Begovic from 20 yards. After that both teams allowed the clock to roll down. In Chelsea’s case that was understandable; in Stoke’s it was inexcusable.

Star man: Nemanja Matic (Chelsea)

Chelsea: Cech 6, Ivanovic 6, Cahill 6, Terry 6, Azpilicueta 6, Matic 7, Willian 7 (Cole 78min), Lampard 6 (Luiz 70min), Salah 7, Schurrle 6 (Hazard 59min 7), Torres 6

Stoke: Begovic 7, Cameron 6 (Wilkinson h-t 5), Wilson 6, Shawcross 5, Pieters 5, Whelan 5, Palacios 5 (Adam h-t 6), N’Zonzi 5, Arnautovic 5, Odemwingie 4, Crouch 5 (Walters 78min)

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Mail:

Chelsea 3-0 Stoke: Salah inspires Mourinho's men to victory at Stamford Bridge
By Patrick Collins

When the biggest teams conduct the final arguments of this tumultuous season, then Chelsea will have their say.
An ultimately comfortable victory at Stamford Bridge lifted them to the top of the pile. And while they are unlikely to remain at the summit to the end, they have shown that anybody with serious designs on the title must finish in front of Jose Mourinho’s side.
Stunning goals from Mohamed Salah and the brilliant Willian, along with a penalty from Frank Lampard, carried them past a Stoke challenge which slowly ran out of energy and ambition.
After a few alarms, they enter a critical week of their season in decent heart and reasonable shape. It is all they could have asked.
On Tuesday, they face the formidable Paris St Germain, 3 – 1 down in the Champions’ League quarter final. 'It is one thing to start Tuesday’s match after another defeat’, reasoned Mourinho last night.
'It is another thing to start with a victory’. The manager believes, as he has to believe, that his team have a chance of progressing. The quality of the football they produced, after a tentative, uncertain start, will assist his task of persuading his players.
On Saturday, Mourinho picked a side equipped to carry the title fight. Frank Lampard, now a squad player, came into midfield, while David Luiz and Eden Hazard started on the bench, but Chelsea were strong and competent.
As for Stoke, their approach justified the contention that their ways really are changing. Their manager Mark Hughes was displeased with the way things worked out: 'We weren’t able to troublke a very good Chelsea side today’, he said.
'We wanted to make a better fist of it’. Yet no longer were passes launched exclusively high and hopeful. Instead, defenders who once were encouraged to put their foot through the ball now played it out with some care from the back, and they looked a more effective team for it.
True, a fair number of their attacking ideas involved floated offerings towards the head of Peter Crouch, but, until fatigue sapped their creative ambition, they were far from the primitive Stoke of old.
Chelsea’s main creative source – and the player most responsible for guiding them through their early uncertainty --was the lively, resourceful Willian, pushing forward nimbly from midfield. He ran through his repertoire; the feint, the flick, the startling change of pace, But nothing was successfully constructed until the 31st minute when Nemanja Matic made a strong run down the left and selected Mohamed Salah on the far side of the box with his cross. Salah’s response was dramatic, a stunning left foot drive which fairly exploded past Asmir Begovic for the opening goal.
In truth, Chelsea were faintly flattered by the advantage, but it was a score which settled the side, and the balance of the contest tilted firmly in their favour.
In 40 minutes, they seemed to have taken a firm hold on the match, when Branislav Ivanovic met a deep cross.As the header bulged the net, a distant linesman could be seen, waving an offside flag. Replays showed that he was correct, by perhaps a single foot. Mourinho threw a small, predictable touchline tantrum, but  he wasn’t really trying too hard.
Stoke brought on Charlie Adam in place of Wilson Palacios, and Andy Wilkinson for Geoff Cameron at the start of the second half.
Adam announced himself with a dubious lunge at Andre Schurrle which brought the Chelsea physio racing from the bench. The tackle went unpunished and Adam seemed relieved.
He was equally relieved some half an hour later, when his high, reckless boot thudded in the chest of the substitute David Luiz, and once again the referee Lee Probert saw nothing worth censuring. Stoke will argue that Adam’s reputation precedes him. The rest of us will recall with a shudder just how he acquired that reputation.
Stoke were still struggling to supplement the efforts of their lone striker Crouch. He worked as hard as ever, chasing endless lost causes, but he was outmuscled and heavily outnumbered by Chelsea’s defenders.
Despite their reconstruction, Stoke have been relying on his efforts for so long, that they are perilously short of a Plan B when the Crouch ploy is unsuccessful.
The course of the seemed decisively set on the hour, when Eden Hazard came on for Schurrle. Inside a  minute, the little conjurer was teasing and turning the Stoke defence, as he would hope to bewilder PSG on Tuesday.
A deft backheel sent Salah running to the byline, only to have his legs taken away by the artless assault of Wilkinson. Begovic saved Lampard’s penalty, but the Chelsea ancient was offered the rebound, and the invitation was accepted.
A dozen minutes later, the excellent Willian terminated the argument. The ball was worked pleasingly across the face of the Stoke defence, and Willian advanced upon Ryan Shawcross. Unwisely, the Stoke captain stood off his man, whereupon Willian unfolded a sumptuous curling effort which lodged inside the far post.
Testing trials lie in wait, but for the moment, Chelsea are still stating an eloquent case. Their arguments should not be discounted.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech 5; Ivanovic 6.5, Cahill 6.5, Terry 6.5, Azpilicueta 6.5; Lampard 7 (Luiz 70), Matic 7; Willian 7.5 (Cole 78), Schurrle 6.5 (Hazard 59, 6), Salah 8; Torres 6.

Subs not used: Oscar, Ba, Schwarzer, Kalas.

Stoke (4-5-1): Begovic 5; Cameron 5 (Wilkinson 46, 4.5), Wilson 5, Shawcross 5, Pieters 5; Odemwingie 6, Whelan, Palacios 6 (Adam 46, 4,5), Nzonzi 6, Arnautovic 6; Crouch 5 (Walters 78).

Subs not used: Muniesa, Guidetti, Etherington, Sorensen.

MOM: Salah

Referee: Lee Probert - 6
*Player ratings by SAMI MOKBEL at Stamford Bridge

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Mirror:

Chelsea 3-0 Stoke City: Blues make light work of the Potters to keep pace in Premier League title race
 
By Dave Kidd

Mohamed Salah, Frank Lampard and Willian found the net as Jose Mourinho's side bounced back from their midweek defeat to PSG

So, the daring hijack routine Jose Mourinho performed on Liverpool to snap up Mohamed Salah in the January transfer window might just have an impact on the title race.
The Reds certainly haven’t been pining the loss of the ­Egyptian winger, who so nearly moved to Anfield before Chelsea snaffled him by striking an £11million deal with Basel.
But it was Salah’s first-half strike which sent Chelsea on their way to a victory that propelled them back to the top of the Premier League at ­Liverpool’s expense – for 24 hours at least.
The rocket-fuelled wideman had illuminated plenty of Thursday nights as Basel made a habit of defeating English sides in the Europa League. Now, he is on centre stage – scoring a crucial opener as Mourinho’s men obliterated memories of their season’s worst week.
Plastered in Paris and at Palace, Chelsea were glad to be back home. They simply do not lose League games here under Mourinho – and these days they do not even concede goals.
This was an eighth straight clean sheet at the Bridge and another one is sure to be required against Paris Saint- Germain on Tuesday if Chelsea are to progress to the last four of the Champions League.
Mourinho may not have a “real striker”, but he has a thick blue line of four bona fide ­world-class defenders.
The Portuguese dropped Eden Hazard for the first League match in six months, but, with Stoke virtually failing to turn up, this never looked like any sort of gamble, as Chelsea carved out a series of chances. Fernando Torres sent a ­firecracker just wide, Salah had a tame shot saved and Willian had a shot deflected by Glenn Whelan and turned around by Asmir Begovic.
Then, Torres might have capitalised on a double dose of dozy defending. Peter Odemwingie, dawdling in his own half was mugged by Cesar Azpilicueta, whose cross was chested by Stoke left-back Erik Pieters into the path of Torres, only for Begovic to smother the ball at the Spanish striker’s feet.
Torres had a penalty shout turned down after a Geoff Cameron challenge and you were beginning to wonder whether it might be another day when Mourinho would pay for the absence of a world-class striker, which he had bemoaned after the 3-1 defeat in Paris.
Yet, on 32 minutes, Chelsea were in front – thanks to their two January signings.
Nemanja Matic cut back for Salah to hammer home a shot, which Begovic could only help on its way with a leg. Salah gave the Stamford Bridge turf a prolonged smacker and, within minutes, Chelsea thought they had doubled their lead.
Frank Lampard crossed from the right and Branislav Ivanovic headed in, but some lengthy celebrations were curtailed when a late – but correct – offside flag was spotted.
Lampard might have scored in first-half injury-time when he had the time to pick his spot, only to see his shot blocked. Mark Hughes made a double change at the break, sending on Charlie Adam and Andy Wilkinson.
Adam was straight into the action with a tasty challenge – this one hard, but fair - which left Schurrle needing treatment. When Hazard arrived, in place of Schurrle on the hour, his influence was almost immediate.
A cunning back-heel from the Belgian picked out Salah, who was wiped out by Wilkinson.
It could not have been a clearer penalty, had the Stoke defender driven an articulated lorry at the Egyptian. Lampard’s initial spot-kick was well saved by Begovic, diving to his right, but the England veteran raced in to steal home the rebound.
Salah then teed up Willian for a gorgeous third, curled home from the edge of the box.
Later, of Willian, Frank Lampard said: “He was brilliant in the No.10 role. He shifts the ball so quickly and gets his shots away. He does it better than anyone I’ve ever played with. And he works back too.”
Willian was another of ­Chelsea’s hijack jobs, swiped from under Tottenham’s noses last summer.
Who says crime doesn’t pay?

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Express:

Chelsea 3 - Stoke 0: Willian leads charge at Stamford Bridge
CHELSEA cantered back to the top of a league Jose Mourinho reckons they can’t win – even though it could be just for 24 hours – and fired a warning to Paris St-Germain in the process.

By: Colin Mafham

Mourinho’s men will find the French champions much tougher to topple than sorry Stoke were yesterday.
But there is nothing better than an easy victory like this to get Chelsea believing they still have a chance of progressing in Europe – even if their tongue-in-cheek manager does tip Liverpool or Manchester City to pip them on the home front.
The big question now is will they persevere with a Fernando Torres who doesn’t appear to be able to hit a proverbial barn door right now?
Whether he can rectify that in the next 48 hours is a matter for serious consideration.
Mind you, if anyone took to heart what Mourinho said about some of his players last week it was Willian.
No one could accuse him of lacking that special quality – the five-letter word begins with b and ends with s – his manager chose to write home about.
The Brazilian, starting probably only to give Eden Hazard and Oscar a rest, staked an early claim for a place against PSG on Tuesday with a great effort that Asmir Begovic clawed away.
A pity for Chelsea that poor Torres didn’t do the same.
It’s difficult to tell whether the Spaniard is sulking or sorry. But whatever it is he looks a shadow of his old £50million self, despite Mourinho’s assurances that he still has a big future at the club.
Even when Erik Pieters mistakenly chested the ball into Torres’s path just a few feet out, keeper Asmir Begovic reacted quicker to deny him the goal he looks so desperately in need of.
Needless to say he had little say in Chelsea’s opener on the half-hour when Mohamed Salah made it a dream Premier League start for him with a clinical strike after Nemanja Matic set him up.
It was no more than Chelsea deserved, though, in a first half in which Stoke showed little sign of making it a happy return for their manager, Mark Hughes, who enjoyed some glory years as a player at Stamford Bridge.
They produced virtually no threats before the break and would have gone in two down if Branislav Ivanoic hadn’t been denied a super-looking goal for being a mere fraction offside.
No wonder Hughes’s hair looked like turning a whiter shade of grey! Or that he brought on the more creative Charlie Adam for Wilson Palacios in the second half.
Not that it appeared to make a huge difference, even if Chelsea continued to take little advantage of their territorial supremacy.
Until, that is, young Salah capped a great day for him when he tempted substitute Andy Wilkinson into the sort of rash challenge that gave referee Lee Probert little choice but to point to the penalty spot.
Frank Lampard did the rest, even if Begovic did manage to save his first attempt.
It might have been three soon afterwards but the chance fell to sorry Torres – and you didn’t need JK Rowling to write that script. He missed, of course.
Willian didn’t, though, with a 72nd-minute super-strike that used to be a trademark for Torres. And didn’t he just deserve it?
There didn’t really seem a lot on when the diminutive South American picked the ball up outside the box.
But his superb, curling effort into the roof of the net was just reward for his efforts.
A little surprising then, that Mourinho chose to take him off soon afterwards and replace him with Ashley Cole.
Could it be he was already pencilling him in for that Champions League crunch game on Tuesday?
It was by then, though, well and truly over as a contest.
And Stoke – and Hughes in particular – looked as if they couldn’t wait for the final whistle.
When it did finally come, the previously forgotten Cole threw his team shirt to a fan as he left the pitch after just 10 minutes on it.
Was that a goodbye, do you think?

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

Star:

Chelsea 3 - Stoke 0: Frank Lampard makes history as the Blues cruise to victory
FRANK LAMPARD chalked up another career milestone yesterday – at the second attempt.

By Tony Stenson

The veteran midfielder, 35, scored his 250th competitive club goal but he did it on the rebound after seeing a soft second-half penalty saved by Asmir Begovic.
Lampard’s latest strike came almost 19 years after his first – scored on loan for Swansea and helped Chelsea on their way back to the top of the Premier League table.
Lampard said: “I am enjoying playing at the moment and being one of the older heads.
“I want to keep playing for another two or three years and as long as I can contribute.
“It’s different when you get older and you have to stay sharper.
“Will I play against PSG? If the manager wants me to. We need to win 2-0 to get through and with the players we have who says we can’t do that?”
Despite Lampard’s input it was Mohamed Salah, the man from the land of the pharoahs, who stopped Chelsea’s season turning to sand.
The Egyptian international, making his first full start since his £11million transfer from Basel, scored their opening goal to calm nerves and end Stoke’s hopes of inflicting an unheard of third successive defeat on Jose Mourinho’s men.
He was later fouled by Stoke sub Andy Wilkinson for Lampard’s 61st minute spot-kick.
He also played a part in man of the match Willian striking a beauty from 18 yards to round off a perfect day.
Mourinho said: “He will be good. There was a feeling between him and the crowd. They love a winger.
Next season he, along with Oscar and Eden Hazard, will take this club forward.”
Victory gave Mourinho’s side a timely boost before they take on PSG in the return leg of the Champions League quarter-final.
They trail 3-1 and the men from the Potteries proved just as tough as the monsieurs of Paris.
Stoke are the kind of side you wouldn’t want to watch every week but are the ones you would want in the trenches alongside you in times of trouble. They never give in, are constantly in your face and Chelsea needed to dig in for victory.
The game didn’t start on a happy note with Chelsea boss Mourinho ear-bashing a TV camera crew who picked out Fernando Torres before the match.
Mourinho might not always pick his misfiring striker but he defends him to the last.
He said: “I was unhappy with camerman chasing Torres before the game. It wasn’t professional and I told him so.”
Mourinho’s men were everything that had been missing in each of their two previous league defeats. Gone was the arrogance and in its place was a fierce desire not to fail again.
They were quicker to the ball, went flying into tackles and Stoke were forced back. It was no surprise when the home side took a 32nd-minute lead.
Nemanja Matic broke clear on the right and his cross was met first time by Salah.
Stoke staged a fierce late rally but the final magic came from Brazilian Willian with a stunning 18-yard strike.
Stoke boss Mark Hughes said: “It’s a wake-up call and we need to get back to what we have been doing previously. I hope some don’t think it’s holiday time. It’ll be my job to remind them otherwise next week.”
★ PSG warmed up for their trip to Chelsea by beating Reims 3-0. Boss Laurent Blanc made eight changes to his side but Edinson Cavani opened the scoring, before blundering Reims defender Aissa Mandi scored TWO own goals.

 

 

 

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

Paris Saint-Germain 1-3

Independent:
PSG 3 Chelsea 1
Javier Pastore delivers late sucker punch to Jose Mourinho's Blues
Sam Wallace

This is the time of the season when Jose Mourinho’s teams are supposed to turn into the kind of cold-eyed trophy-hunters that have brought their famous coach so much success over the years. But after the wobble at Selhurst Park came the calamity in Paris that leaves Chelsea’s season at the crossroads.
Their third consecutive away defeat leaves Mourinho’s team fighting for their Champions League lives and facing a monumental task when the teams meet for the second leg at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday. Suddenly Paris Saint-Germain believe that they are on the brink of a definitive victory for their grand project and turning this tie around will be no simple task.
There have been more dramatic victories in Mourinho’s past and plenty of times when he has rescued a tie in the second leg. There are a few in this current Chelsea team who were in the side that were 3-1 down to Napoli after a first leg in the Champions League two years ago and rescued the tie around on their way to winning the trophy. This time, however, it will be quite some escape against a PSG team capable of causing all sorts of mischief on the counter-attack.
At 2-1 a disappointing performance could have been dismissed by Mourinho with a shrug and the well-worn excuse that his players were still learning. When substitute Javier Pastore dribbled in from the right goalline to make it 3-1 with virtually the last kick of the game, the whole picture changed again, and suddenly Chelsea are on the back foot.
They threw it away. Having fought their way back to level through an Eden Hazard penalty in the first half after Ezequiel Lavezzi’s third minute opener, it felt like Chelsea were in control. But PSG, the new new-money of Europe came out fighting in the second half and, unfazed by the loss of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, scored two goals that change the complexion of the tie significantly.
The warning signs were there in the away tie against Galatasaray in the previous round when Mourinho’s side failed to put away their opposition in Istanbul when the opportunity presented itself. Against that calibre of opposition, they were offered a reprieve but this time there was no let-off. An own goal from David Luiz and then Pastore’s brilliant late strike means that they find themselves with backs against a cold wall.
Give PSG their due, there were outstanding performances from Blaise Matuidi and Lavezzi, but you would hardly say they were at their best. Not with Ibrahimovic so indifferent and Edinson Cavani looking a long way from one of the most expensive strikers in the world.

It would be dangerous to doubt the capability of Mourinho and his players to find a way past PSG, who are yet to reach the semi-finals under their new Qatari owners. But it will be another exhausting task, mentally and physically, to drag themselves into the final four of the competition. As the games stack up in the title race, they will have to draw on all their strength in a squad that is starting to look tired.
There were reports of trouble too, among the Chelsea travelling support who were accused of attacking shops and restaurants in the Saint Denis area of the city before kick-off. It was unclear how many had been involved in the trouble that took place in the afternoon.
Mourinho picked a starting XI without Fernando Torres, Demba Ba or the injured Samuel Eto’o, the second big game of the season he had looked at the strikers available to him and decided that it was a case of none of the above.
Instead he played Andre Schurrle as the lead attacker, as he had done at Old Trafford on August in his first striker-free formation of the season. It was not much of an endorsement for Torres and Ba but then someone was always likely to pay the price for that defeat to Crystal Palace, and he has been threatening to do something like it for a while.
They could not have started any worse, a goal down within three minutes from an elementary piece of bad defending. PSG started brightly and stretched Chelsea all over midfield, working the ball left to Matuidi who put in a good cross into a six-yard area that was largely bereft of PSG attackers. John Terry needed a call from Cesar Azpilicueta to let him know the full-back was better placed to clear the danger but none came.

Instead, not knowing who was behind him, the Chelsea captain felt he was obliged to leap and stretch for a ball that was just out of his comfort zone. He ended up heading it straight to Lavezzi inside the area. The Argentinian took the ball down nicely and with the time and space to hit a shot lifted the ball up and past Cech before the goalkeeper had time to react.
It happened so swiftly that Chelsea had barely had a chance to get themselves into the game, and for a few moments you wondered if PSG might be able to inflict more damage on their opponents. But instead, Mourinho’s team showed their maturity and by the mid-point of the half they had taken control of the game.
Ibrahimovic was a marginalised presence in the first half; he struggled to find any space between Terry and Gary Cahill and David Luiz and Ramires protecting the midfield. Willian had an excellent half and it was his ball from the right that was snapped back into the feet of Oscar that made the space for latter to draw a clumsy tackle from Thiago Silva. The Serbian referee pointed to the penalty spot.
Hazard has scored every penalty that he has taken this season in the absence of Frank Lampard, a substitute on Wednesday night. This one was no different, tucked inside Salvatore Sirigu’s right-post to put Chelsea level. Hazard also hit the post on 40 minutes with a brilliantly executed left-foot volley from a cross from Willian that was by no means simple to connect with, let along keep on target.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was substituted after suffering a hamstring injury
There was a complaint from PSG at the end of the first half when Cahill and Cavani both went to ground and the Uruguayan appealed, half-heartedly it should be said, that the English defender had fallen on top of him and brought him down. Of that attacking three, however, it was Lavezzi who consistently looked the most dangerous.

Ibrahimovic drifted in and out, his best effort before he was substituted a shot that was charged down after Christophe Jallet’s ball had found him in space. Then, around the 65th minute, he had competed hard for a ball in the middle with David Luiz, turned to follow the play up-field and pulled up sharp with what looked like a strain in his left thigh.
By then PSG had retaken the lead, another goal that had Lavezzi at the heart of it and a bad one for Chelsea to give away. It was Luiz who fouled Matuidi out on the left wing to concede a free-kick and the Brazilian who found himself helpless to stop the ball cannoning off his legs and into his own goal after Lavezzi’s free-kick from the left wing had been allowed to travel all the way across the Chelsea area.
Mourinho looked disgusted at the outcome. Earlier, just before the hour he had called upon Torres to replace Schurrle to try to reinvigorate a tiring Chelsea attack. The Spanish striker and Hazard managed to trick and bulldoze their way through PSG on 65 minutes but Hazard could not quite thread a ball through to the Chelsea No 9 for a shot at goal.
Mourinho sent on Lampard with 20 minutes remaining and it was the Englishman who, along with Azpilicueta, found himself trailing in Pastore’s wake when he cut in from the right and scored with virtually the last kick of the game. It did not look good for Petr Cech, who was beaten at his near post. Either way, it will have to be much better at Stamford Bridge.

Paris Saint-Germain (4-3-3): Sirigu; Jallet, Alex, Silva, Maxwell; Verratti, Motta, Matuidi; Cavani, Ibrahimovic, Lavezzi
Subs: Moura/Ibrahimovic 68, Cabaye/Verratti 76, Pastore/Lavezzi 82

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill, Azpilicueta; Ramires, Luiz; Willian, Oscar, Hazard, Schurrle.
Subs: Torres/Schurrle 59, Lampard/Oscar 72

Man of the match: Matuidi
Booked: PSG Alex, Cavani Chelsea Ramires, Willian, Luiz
Rating: 6

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

Telegraph:

Paris St-German 3 Chelsea 1
By Matt Law, in Paris

What Jose Mourinho would do for just one world-class forward. Paris St-Germain started with three and even the substitute, Javier Pastore, proved he would be an upgrade on anything currently on show for Chelsea.
Blues manager Mourinho feels he has such little firepower available to him that he started with no out-and-out strikers for the first leg of the Champions Leaguequarter-final tie in Paris. Owner Roman Abramovich must be getting the message loud and clear.
Fernando Torres was introduced as a substitute with just over half-an-hour remaining, but Chelsea were still a team playing without a goalscorer.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic could even afford a quiet night. He went off with a second-half injury, but it did not matter as PSG displayed a wealth of forward options that Mourinho can currently only dream about.
Ezequiel Lavezzi terrorised the Chelsea defence, scoring the first goal and forcing David Luiz to put through his own net. Edinson Cavani almost grabbed a stunning third for PSG, before Pastore swerved his way past Frank Lampard, beat John Terry for pace and scored past Petr Cech at his near post.
Chelsea have Eden Hazard’s penalty to cling on to heading into next week’s second leg, but Mourinho does not have a Zlatan, Lavezzi, Cavani or even a Pastore to call on to provide the goals he needs.
Missed chances are becoming the theme of Chelsea’s season and may well prove to be the reason why Mourinho finishes his first year back in England without a trophy.
It’s not just the strikers, either. The second chance offered to Luiz by Mourinho was squandered. The Brazilian was substituted at half-time in the defeat at Crystal Palace, but was given a reprieve, with Nemanja Matic ineligible in the Champions League.
It may have been John Terry who headed straight to the feet of Lavezzi to score PSG’s first goal in just the fourth minute, but it was Luiz who had started the home side’s attack by losing possession.
Luiz then made and scored the second-half own goal that restored PSG’s lead. He unnecessarily brought down Blaise Matuidi on the left and Lavezzi swung in a brilliant set-piece that the Chelsea man bundled into his own net with Cech beaten.
In between his errors, Luiz had grown into the game, picking up Ibrahimovic when he looked for the ball and pressing Marco Verratti into errors and misplaced passes.
But the mistakes for the goals showed again why Mourinho has major misgivings over the reliability of Luiz and would most likely accept a big bid him. PSG are one of the interested clubs and saw both the good and the bad of the 26-year-old.
Samuel Eto’o failed to recover from a hamstring injury in time to travel to Paris, but Mourinho preferred to play without a striker – rather than put his faith in Torres.
Mourinho was clearly unconcerned by the fact Chelsea were beaten 3-0 by Juventus last time they went away in the Champions League without an out-and-out frontman in 2012.
Roberto Di Matteo was sacked in the aftermath of that defeat, but Mourinho will use this loss to convince Abramovich he must spend big to change Chelsea’s strikers – not the manager.
Chelsea got off to the worst possible start by conceding an early goal and seeing Ramires pick up a yellow card that rules him out of the second leg.
But Mourinho’s men were handed a lifeline as Thiago Silva produced a rash challenge on Oscar and referee Milorad Mazic had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
Hazard stepped up against the club who will try to sign him in the summer and slotted the coolest of penalties past Salvatore Sirigu to send Mourinho wild in the technical area.
If the spot-kick underlined the desire of the PSG money men to try to snare Hazard, then an outrageous piece of skill from the Belgian will only have reinforced Chelsea’s desire to keep him.
Willian crossed from the right and Hazard produced a superb angled volley that beat Sirigu, but cannoned back off the post.
PSG screamed for a penalty of their own on the stroke of half-time, when Cavani went down under an aerial challenge from Gary Cahill. This time Mazic was unmoved.
Mourinho decided it was time to send on a striker with just over half-an-hour remaining, as Torres replaced Andre Schurrle, who had struggled to try to hold up the ball or offer his team an outlet.
But Luiz gifted PSG the lead again in the 62nd-minute and, this time, Chelsea had no response. When Torres lost the ball during an attempted attack, Mourinho turned away shaking his head.
Luiz was one of three Chelsea players substitute Lucas Moura danced around before trying to set-up Cavani, who could not apply a finish to what would have been a fantastic goal.
Cavani almost scored with a brilliant curling shot, but a third goal came in stoppage time as Pastore wriggled his way in from the right and fired past Cech.
PSG had proved they are more than just a vanity project. Mourinho had proved that Chelsea have one hand tied behind their back when it comes to slugging it out with the best.

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

Guardian:

Javier Pastore's killer blow for PSG leaves Chelsea facing uphill task
PSG 3 Chelsea 1
Daniel Taylor

The most encouraging news for Chelsea, at the end of a hugely disappointing night, is that when they set about trying to overturn this deficit at Stamford Bridge next week there will almost certainly be no involvement for the man who likes to think of himself as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, superstar. There is, however, plenty to concern José Mourinho after a game that leaves the champions of Ligue 1 in a clear position of command.
Eden Hazard's first-half penalty at least offers a glimmer of hope but if Chelsea defend this generously again the bottom line is that it will almost certainly be their last match in this season's competition. They have chosen a bad moment of the season to start letting in soft goals and this defeat, on top of what happened at Crystal Palace at the weekend, threatens to have serious repercussions for their entire season.
The damage is still retrievable but it is difficult to be hugely optimistic when Mourinho clearly has so little trust in his strikers, with Fernando Torres increasingly becoming the scapegoat of choice, and especially now John Terry and his colleagues are starting to look unusually flaky. The problem with Torres is not a new one but Chelsea's success this season has been built on a parsimonious defence and once that lapses it highlights their other deficiencies all the more.
Terry was badly at fault as Ezequiel Lavezzi, the game's outstanding player, opened the scoring in the third minute. David Luiz, who had lost the ball in the buildup, inadvertently helped PSG regain the lead and there are two ways to look at what happened in stoppage time when the substitute Javier Pastore completed the scoring. One is that it was a goal of sheer brilliance, as Pastore wriggled clear of César Azpilicueta, then eluded Frank Lampard before letting fly with a low, angled shot. The alternative view is that it felt completely out of keeping with what we know about Chelsea on these nights.
Mourinho, naturally, took the second option, describing it as "ridiculous" and "a joke". His players, he said, had "enjoyed the third goal with Pastore", though it is also true that a goalkeeper of Petr Cech's experience will intensely dislike being beaten at his near post. Cech's part in the second goal will bring more scrutiny, the keeper barely reacting as a free-kick eluded everyone before striking David Luiz in the six-yard area. Defensively, it was rare to see Chelsea make so many individual errors at telling points.
Ibrahimovic suffered a hamstring injury which PSG's president later said would rule him out for two or three weeks but there was still plenty of evidence that the supporting cast are capable of causing difficulties. Lavezzi, in particular, took the game to Chelsea, taking his goal majestically, though it goes without saying Ibrahimovic's absence could be a significant setback for Laurent Blanc's team. One pass in particular to send Lavezzi scampering behind Gary Cahill was a reminder of the Swede's uncommon ability.
Marco Verratti was also forced off before the end but it is not encouraging for Chelsea when Mourinho's analysis involved emphasising the point, not for the first time, about it being "difficult for us to score goals". When the manager talked about not having a "real striker" everyone knew it was a dig at Torres. Chelsea can be encouraged that they overturned a 3-1 first-leg deficit to overcome Napoli 5-4 on aggregate en route to winning the trophy two seasons ago. Yet Mourinho must be alarmed by their sudden vulnerabilities. They will also have to make do without Ramires in the return leg, suspended because of his yellow card for a first-half challenge on Lavezzi, the tormentor-in-chief.
It was a terrible start for Chelsea, who were losing before most of the players had a single grass stain on their kit, and Terry will have to take the blame because of the poor defensive header that presented Lavezzi with the ball inside the penalty area. The Chelsea captain, usually so assured in the air, did not get anything like enough distance on his clearance. Lavezzi controlled the ball on his chest, pulled back his left foot to take aim and his shot was still rising as it arrowed in off the underside of the crossbar.
The equaliser came on 27 minutes after Thiago Silva's sliding tackle had taken down Oscar for the penalty, and Chelsea were marginally the more threatening team for the remainder of the first half, almost taking the lead when Hazard sized up Willian's cross and cracked a left-volley against the far post.

For the most part, however, they did not have the same dynamism as their opponents. That, coupled with defensive lapses, was a bad combination. Lavezzi's free-kick led to David Luiz's own goal just a couple of minutes after Mourinho had accepted that the experiment with André Schürrle up front had not worked and Torres was given the chance to show it was wrong to leave him out. He had barely any impact and the momentum was back with the home side even after Ibrahimovic went down holding the back of his right leg.
It ended with Pastore collecting the ball on the right, beating one man, then another and lashing his shot past Cech. Mourinho immediately started shaking hands with everyone on the PSG bench and shaping up to leave, even before the final whistle. He does this quite often but, in this case, it felt like a man who was disgusted with what he had seen.

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

Times:
Javier Pastore’s finishing touch completes bad night for Chelsea

Paris Saint-Germain 3 Chelsea 1
Oliver Kay Chief Football Correspondent

In the space of a few seconds, a difficult evening for Chelsea became a chastening one. José Mourinho called it “a joke” that Javier Pastore scored in the manner that he did, but his Chelsea side had been flirting with danger all night. They had only themselves to blame.
As a compelling encounter entered stoppage time, Chelsea were left hanging on unconvincingly: 2-1 down but not quite out in Paris. Mourinho snorted in derision at what happened next, as Pastore waltzed around two challenges and beat Petr Cech at his near post, but Paris Saint-Germain deserved the third goal that established them as clear favourites to progress to the semi-finals, with the second leg at Stamford Bridge to come on Tuesday.
Mourinho lamented his team’s defensive errors — a poor header from John Terry for PSG’s first goal, an own goal from David Luiz for the second, the ease with which César Azpilicueta, Frank Lampard and Cech were beaten for the third — and, of course, he wailed about how awful centre forwards are.
He is right, of course, even if Chelsea’s front-line options looked weaker last summer by the time he sent Romelu Lukaku on loan to Everton, but the Mourinho interpretation of the night — of an excellent “strategic” performance undermined by individual errors beyond his control — was only partly accurate. It was, after all, a night on which his team showed far too little of the intensity and focus that they demonstrated in their masterful win away to Manchester City in February.
Since then, Chelsea have won one, drawn two and lost four of their seven away games in all competitions. Defensive errors and the absence of a reliable goalscorer are two very obvious factors in that, but anyone looking at their performances in recent away games against West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and now PSG would also cite a lack of intensity and a paucity of real adventure.
PSG showed far greater quality in the final third, as you would expect of a side containing Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani, against a team with André Schürrle as a makeshift striker, but perhaps the biggest difference was in midfield. Luiz and Ramires established control in midfield for a period in the first half, after a rocky start, but th ey had none of the nous, energy and verve of Thiago Motta, Blaise Matuidi and Marco Verratti.
Chelsea could hardly have got off to a worse start. It was as if they had come stumbling on to the pitch, bleary-eyed and still out of sorts after the defeat at Selhurst Park on Saturday. They looked off the pace in those first few minutes as PSG passed the ball around Luiz and Ramires with alarming ease. On the rare occasions that Chelsea managed to gain possession, it was frittered away.
A good team will always expect to punish such sloppiness. Sure enough, only two minutes and 53 seconds had passed when PSG took the lead.
It was no surprise that it stemmed from their left flank, where Matudi joined Maxwell in trying to swamp Branislav Ivanovic. From Maxwell’s cross, Terry, at full stretch, could only head the ball towards the penalty spot, where Lavezzi controlled it on his chest and adjusted his body to strike a lovely left-footed shot into the roof of Cech’s net.
At that point, you feared for Chelsea. Struggling to find any composure whatsoever, they were repeatedly second to the ball in midfield, with Ramires paying a price when he was booked in the twelfth minute for a lunge on Lavezzi, meaning that he will miss the second leg.
PSG had all the momentum, but just as quickly, they lost it, allowing Chelsea to take a foothold in the game. Motta, Matuidi and Verratti all seemed to drop a gear and, with that, Chelsea were able to build some rhythm of their own, tentatively at first, through Oscar and Eden Hazard.
The equaliser, in the 26th minute, came after Ibrahimovic conceded possession. There seemed little danger when Willian cut the ball back from the right-hand side towards Oscar near the edge of the penalty area, but Thiago Silva’s challenge was rash. Oscar’s fall was theatrical, but it was a clear penalty, converted by Hazard, as coolly as you would expect.
Little had been seen of Hazard to that point, but his threat is ever-present. Five minutes before half-time he was picked out by Willian’s cross. The angle looked difficult, but Hazard hit a sweet volley that bounced back off the foot of a post.
Three minutes later, from Ibrahimovic’s header, Gary Cahill slipped in the Chelsea penalty area, causing Cavani to lose his footing. No penalty, Milorad Mazic, the referee, ruled.
Mourinho abandoned the Schürrle experiment on the hour. The Germany forward has many qualities, but he is no centre forward. The problem is that, in Mourinho’s eyes, neither is Fernando Torres or Demba Ba these days. Oh for a Lukaku to bring off the bench!
Torres was guilty of failing to hold up the ball when it first came his way, but the real blame for PSG’s second goal lay with Luiz. It was excusable that, in a crowded six-yard box, he inadvertently turned Lavezzi’s menacing free kick into his own goal. His real mistake was in conceding the free kick so needlessly in the first place.
By now, a third PSG goal looked more likely than a second for Chelsea. They lost Ibrahimovic and Verratti to injury and Lavezzi to exhaustion, but their replacements — Lucas Moura, Yohan Cabaye and Pastore — had enough ability to keep the pressure building.
Cavani, though not at his best, remained a real threat, feinting inside Cahill’s challenge and striking a dangerous shot just wide in the final minutes. Chelsea were clinging on — happy, it seemed, at 2-1 — but they were punished for one final lapse as Pastore dribbled away from Azpilicueta and Lampard to beat Cech at the near post. It was as if the roof had fallen in on Chelsea. It is a long way back from 3-1.

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

Mail:

PSG 3-1 Chelsea: Nightmare for Jose as Luiz own goal and Pastore stunner leave Blues facing uphill task to qualify

By Martin Samuel

Jose Mourinho sprang to his feet, marched over to the celebrating bench of Paris Saint-Germain and shook hands. It was one of those dramatic gestures to which he is partial, but few would disagree with the sentiment.
In all likelihood, Javier Pastore, a 24-year-old Argentinian squad player, kept on the sidelines here by PSG’s stellar cast of attacking talent, had put Chelsea out of the Champions League.
There is another game to come in this quarter-final, and Chelsea need only a 2-0 win at home to progress — but that target presumes PSG do not score, an assumption few will be making after this.
They may be without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who limped out here with what appeared to be a hamstring injury, and Edinson Cavani was not at his best either, but ultimately it made little difference. Ezequiel Lavezzi, PSG’s star performer, was a double handful and just when Chelsea thought they had escaped with a flesh wound, Pastore arrived to inflict an injury from which it will be hard to recover.
It was a quite wonderful goal, aided by some quite woeful defending. Pastore, hassling away in the right corner, won the ball, turned and beat Frank Lampard, Cesar Azpilicueta, the recovering Lampard again, and finally Petr Cech at his near post. The goalkeeper should have done better, so should Chelsea in the tackle, but credit to Pastore, who had little room but knew the best route to the target. To have a player of his class coming off the bench is a luxury indeed.
And yet, would PSG have got back into the game were it not for the catastrophic intervention of David Luiz after 62 minutes? Chelsea did not play badly, probably shaded the first half and at that time were, if not comfortable, then growing in confidence. Fernando Torres had just replaced Andre Schurrle, the false nine, and Mourinho was looking to go for the goal that would place Chelsea in charge and heading back to Stamford Bridge with a smile.
Then Luiz suffered what is gently described as one of his lapses of concentration. Required to shepherd to safety a PSG move going nowhere fast in the corner, he clumsily gave away a free-kick. It was unnecessary, inviting danger where there had been none, and what happened next revealed the folly of his action and changed the game.
Lavezzi whipped the ball in low, it eluded Ibrahimovic, plus Cech, and dropped into the path of Luiz, who could only run it into his own net. In his defence, the foul was a greater crime than the own goal. 
It was a brilliant strike by Lavezzi, asking more questions of Chelsea’s back line the nearer it got to the target, and Luiz was merely the hapless stooge.
The foul, though, was foolish. Chelsea had done so well to keep it tight against PSG’s magical front-line. They had contained Ibrahimovic and Cavani, and only Lavezzi had truly troubled them all night. It was a soft way to lose and while progress is not unthinkable, a single PSG goal will leave Chelsea needing four to make certain of qualifying. And PSG are no Arsenal. 
The French champions are a relatively new force in this competition and these occasions still draw something from the fans and the players. The crowd even cheer the Champions League anthem, while the players came out of the traps with purpose and went a goal up after four minutes.
Blaise Matuidi struck a cross from the left which John Terry repelled with a soft header. That would not have made a huge difference had there been a second line of defence to mop up, or had Paris’s forwards not read the move.
Sensing little pace on the cross, they dropped off, knowing any defensive header would not travel far. It left Lavezzi in Position A for when the ball flopped at his feet. He attacked it and smashed his shot into the roof of the net.
It was the worst start imaginable for Chelsea, considering Mourinho had made the decision to play here without a recognised striker, Schurrle taking the place that should have gone to Torres, left to consider his options for an hour on the bench.
It was a brave, if conservative, move by Mourinho - the last use of Schurrle in the false nine role being the match at Manchester United near the start of the season that produced an interminable goalless draw delighting only insomniacs and Roy Hodgson. Yet, in his last three games, Torres has not been responsible for a shot at goal. He has been every bit the false nine, whatever is on his shirt.
When Ramires was booked trying to stop Lavezzi escaping after 12 minutes, putting him out of the return leg, it looked as if it could be a long night for Chelsea. Yet they rallied and dominated the remainder of the first half.
Chances were hardly plentiful but the equaliser came after 27 minutes, the result of ordinary defending Mourinho must hope is a portent of next week’s tie.
Ultimately, whatever the second leg holds, this could be Chelsea’s most significant match of the  season. The need for a prolific goalscorer is all-consuming. PSG simply looked more threatening, even if their front pair were kept quiet.
But could the two goals that are being laid at Cech’s feet - the second and third — signal the return from loan of 21-year-old Thibaut Courtois? The Belgium keeper is rated as the best for his age in the world and is chasing La Liga and Champions League glory with Atletico Madrid. Might this be the match that convinces Mourinho he deserves his chance?
Changes will be made from here, without doubt. The manager can say what he likes about the youth and readiness of his side, but he will not have

PSG: Sirigu 6, Jallet 6.5, Alex 6.5, Thiago Silva 6, Maxwell 6.5, Verratti 6 (Cabaye 76), Thiago Motta 6.5, Matuidi 6.5, Cavani 7, Ibrahimovic 6 (Lucas Moura 68), Lavezzi 8 (Pastore 84).
Subs not used: Douchez, Marquinhos, Digne, Rabiot.
Booked: Alex, Thiago Motta, Cavani.
Goals: Lavezzi 4, Luiz 62 og, Pastore 90.

Chelsea: Cech 5.5, Ivanovic 6, Cahill 6, Terry 6, Azpilicueta 6, Ramires 6, Luiz 6.5, Willian 6.5, Oscar 6 (Lampard 72), Hazard 7, Schurrle 5 (Torres 59).
Subs not used: Schwarzer, Mikel, Ba, Ake, Kalas.
Booked: Ramires, Willian, Luiz.
Goal: Hazard 27 pen.

Attendance: 48,000
Referee: Milorad Mazic (Serbia)
*Player ratings by SAMI MOKBEL

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

Mirror:

PSG 3-1 Chelsea: Javier Pastore's late strike leaves Chelsea facing uphill struggle in Champions League
 
By Martin Lipton
 
The Blues go into next week's second leg needing to win by at least two goals after shipping in three at the Parc de Princes

One by one, the Chelsea old guard are tumbling.
The men who built the winning machine now losing their edge.
Even the return of the "Special One" has not halted the progress of time, the one opponent nobody can beat.
And in the Parc des Princes last night, at the moment Jose Mourinho was shaking hands and settling for a narrow defeat, Chelsea found themselves staring Champions League oblivion in the face.
This was a chastening evening for three of the cornerstones of the Blues for their triumphant decade, a "joke" over which nobody was laughing.
For John Terry, his second major, costly blunder in five days, following his own goal at Selhurst Park by gift-wrapping Ezequiel Lavezzi's early opener.
For Frank Lampard, a 100th Champions League appearance but only as a late replacement, another signal that his contribution is waning.
And for Petr Cech, the symbol of that glorious May night in the Allianz Arena two years ago, two shockers, errors that might indeed mean Chelsea end the season empty handed.
With Chelsea looking as if Eden Hazard's first half penalty, earned when Oscar made the most of a reckless lunge by home skipper Thiago Silva he needed that mask to hide his embarrassment would give them the psychological advantage, Cech made his first mistake.
A keeper of his experience has to ensure he claims a ball directed through the six yard box, even if the delivery from Lavezzi was terrific.
Instead, Cech only half-advanced, getting nowhere near the ball which dropped against David Luiz' shin and bounced, apologetically, over the line.
It was tough on Luiz, who had driven Chelsea back into the game, even after Ramires picked up the booking that rules him out of the second leg.
Chelsea needed the Brazilian, too, after their nightmare start.
When the impressive Blaide Matuidi crossed from the left, Lavezzi backed off, sensing that Terry might get it wrong, cashing in on the weak header by smashing in off the bar.
Even so, Chelsea showed some courage and while the Luiz own goal had handed PSG the lead again, they still had that Hazard penalty, calmly stroked home, to store away in hand luggage.
It might have been even better, Willian, whose pace down the right had helped induce the poor challenge by Thiago Silva, dinking out another great ball that Hazard smashed against the upright.
With Gary Cahill outstanding at the back, Chelsea appeared to have withstood all that PSG, for whom Zlatan Ibrahimovic was surprisingly ineffective even before he went off with a hamstring injury that is set to make him an absentee next Tuesday.
Edinson Cavani was a whisker wide when, for perhaps the first time all game but a worrying portent for Sao Paulo in June he got the better of Cahill.
Even so, Chelsea appeared to have done enough. Mourinho certainly thought so, striding across to the other technical area to shake the hands of Laurent Blanc and his coaching staff.
But then, disaster, debacle, everything changed.
Substitute Javier Pastore should never have been allowed to ease his way past Lampard and Terry and work his way into the box.
Even so, a keeper of Cech's experience and cannot allow himself to be beaten at the near post from that angle or distance.
Of course, it is, as Mourinho insisted "not over".
Back in 2012, remember, they clawed their way back from a 3-1 first leg deficit against a Napoli side including Lavezzi and Cavani, with the club still reeling from the shock of Andre Villas-Boas' forced exit.
Under Mourinho, while he, too, seems to have isolated and turned against Ashley Cole, it is a happier ship, certainly as far as the fans are concerned.
But this, far more than Crystal Palace or any of those other Premier League defeats, felt like a defining night for many of those under Mourinho's command. PSG are a better side than Napoli.
It seems that the changes this summer will have to be bigger than he envisaged. And even some of the mainstays, some of his favourites, may discover they have finally been beaten by the ultimate opponent.

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

Express:

Paris Saint-Germain 3 - Chelsea 1: Jose Mourinho draws a Blanc with Blues tactics

WHEN the ball hit the back of the Chelsea net for the third time, Jose Mourinho turned on his heels, strode across to give Laurent Blanc a bear hug and marched off down the tunnel.
By: Tony Banks

He had seen enough. His tactical plan to stifle Paris Saint-Germain had come so close to working. But in this competition, close is never enough.
For once in his illustrious career, the normally impeccable Petr Cech had an off night.
Two of the goals could be put down to the Czech goalkeeper, though Javier Pastore’s injury-time goal to make it 3-1 after he had beaten three men with a mazy dribble, was brilliant.
But it still beat Cech at his near post, and it is that crucial strike that gives Blanc’s team the edge in this tie. Chelsea have come back from two goals behind in Europe before, memorably when they crashed 3-1 at Napoli in the last 16 in 2012. That defeat effectively spelled the end for Andre Villas-Boas as manager.
By the time the teams met again a fortnight later at Stamford Bridge, Roberto Di Matteo was in charge and the Blues stormed to a famous 4-1 win, going on to lift the trophy.
A fightback of a similar stature is now required on Tuesday and there was enough in this thrilling match to give Mourinho hope for the second leg of this quarter-final.
After getting off to the worst possible start when Ezequiel Lavezzi scored after just four minutes, Chelsea recovered well and caused PSG plenty of problems on the counter-attack. But the big question is whether there are enough goals in this Chelsea team to achieve such a turnaround. A side that have struggled in front of goal, whose strikers have been publicly doubted by their manager, have a mighty task ahead of them.
Afterwards, Mourinho savaged the individual mistakes which cost his team so dearly, and denied that in going over to Blanc and his staff and shaking their hands he had conceded defeat. But his body language told a different story.
Mourinho, attempting to reach his eighth semi-final in the competition, had boldly left Fernando Torres on the bench, playing without a recognised centre forward – German winger Andre Schurrle the lone frontman. It was not the first time the Portuguese had gone without a striker this season. Chelsea did so in a goalless draw at Manchester United in the league.
This time, the tactic backfired – although only just.
The supposed clash of the egos between Mourinho and PSG striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, never materialised. Ibrahimovic has scored 40 goals this season, 10 in the Champions League, but he was largely anonymous last night and replaced with more than 20 minutes remaining. It was others who did the damage.
He did have a minor role in the first goal, however. David Luiz lost the ball in midfield to Ibrahimovic, who worked it wide to Blaise Matuidi. His cross was headed out poorly by John Terry straight to Argentinian Lavezzi, who controlled the ball and smashed his shot in off the bar.
But Chelsea did not panic, did not lose their shape. They kept probing on the break and when Willian pulled the ball back, Oscar was tripped by Thiago Silva for an obvious penalty. Eden Hazard coolly converted for his 17th goal of the season.
Chelsea then assumed control. And when Willian’s cross from the right fell to Hazard, the Belgian cracked in a glorious volley that came back off the far post. Lavezzi, who scored two goals for Napoli on that evening in 2012, had been the danger man for the French all night and came back to haunt them again. Luiz had another moment of madness, giving away a free kick on the left, and when Lavezzi swung the ball in, it evaded everyone, including Cech, and bounced into the net off the unfortunate Luiz.
Chelsea were still dangerous on the break – and Hazard almost played in Torres, who had come on for Schurrle, after an electric run. But PSG had their tails up, and Edinson Cavani’s shot seared an inch past the post.
A 2-1 defeat with an away goal would have been far from a disaster for Chelsea. But substitute Pastore, who had replaced compatriot Lavezzi, had other ideas. He appeared to be hemmed in at the byline on the right but incredibly wriggled clear of three challenges before firing past Cech.
Mourinho keeps saying this team are not ready and the honours will come next year. They can prove him wrong on Tuesday.

PSG (4-3-3): Sirigu; Jallet, Alex, Thiago Silva, Maxwell; Verratti (Cabaye 76), Thiago Motta, Matuidi; Cavani, Ibrahimovic (Moura 68), Lavezzi (Pastore 84). Booked: Alex, Cavani, Thiago Motta. Goals: Lavezzi 4, Luiz 62 og, Pastore 90.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Ramires, Luiz; Willian, Oscar (Lampard 72), Hazard; Schurrle (Torres 59). Booked: Ramires, Willian, Luiz. Goal: Hazard 27 pen.
Referee: M Mazic (Serbia).

NEXT UP: Chelsea – Sat: Stoke (h) league.

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

Star:

Paris Saint-Germain 3 - Chelsea 1: Late Pastore strike leaves Blues on brink of Euro exit
PARIS in the spring proved painful for Jose Mourinho and Chelsea last night.

By David Woods

Just like on their travels in England, the Blues have not found the change in season to their suiting.
Despite battling back from going behind to a sloppy goal in the fourth minute, the west Londoners conceded two poor second half goals to give themselves a huge hurdle to overcome at home in five days.
This Champions League quarter-final defeat makes it three away setbacks in a row, following the 1-0 defeats at Aston Villa and, more shockingly, Crystal Palace on Saturday.
At least they did claim a goal, a penalty by Eden Hazard in the 27th minute.
But they were on the back foot for most of the second half and were gutted to see Argentine substitute Javier Pastore score a third with what was virtually the last kick of the match.
It was a night of real Argie-bargie for Stamford Bridge outfit with Ezequiel Lavezzi grabbing the first, forcing David Luiz to turn into his own net for the second, and countryman Pastore claiming that crucial third.
Making his 100th Champions League appearance for the Blues, keeper Petr Cech ought to have done better for the second and third goals. It was a rare night of uncertainty for him.
With all the talk of super-strikers Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani, it was perhaps forgotten PSG have a third exciting hitman in Lavezzi.
He cost a paltry £25m from Napoli two summers ago, but last night it was a case of all things being Ezequiel!
His opener and wicked 61st-minute free-kick - turned into his own net by Luiz - revved up PSG to go all out for that third, which they got when Pastore evaded John Terry and Gary Cahill to shoot past Cech at his near post.
The keeper would surely have saved comfortbaly on one of his good days.
Maybe for all their efforts to contain superstar giants Ibrahimovic and Cavani, the Blues took their eye off 5ft 8ins Lavezzi.
Terry certainly did in presenting him with the chance early on.
Laurent Blanc’s runaway leaders in France started with real intent to test Chelsea and it paid off.
A cross by Blaise Matuidi on the left was headed out by a backtracking Terry.
His direction was poor and Lavezzi was able to control on his chest and lash a half-volley inside Cech’s right post.
Ramires was booked in the 12th minute for chopping down Lavezzi, meaning he misses the second leg.
The Blues were level after the masked Thiago Silva caught Oscar late in the box and, despite howls of protests, Serbian ref Milorad Mazic awarded a penalty.
Hazard - a major target of the mega-rich French outfit - kept his cool, sending his kick low to the right of Salvatore Sirigu.
Mourinho allowed himself a low punch with his right fist and after embracing team-mates Belgium ace Hazard rushed to the touchline to hug substitute Demba Ba.
Hazard was almost celebrating again in the 40th minute when William diagonal cross was met by the Chelsea No.17.
His left-foot volley was technically superb, angling across Sirigu and clipping the inside of the keeper’s far post.
Having started with no recognised striker and Andre Schurrle as a false nine, Chelsea gave PSG a bit to think about before the break.
But after, they had little attacking threat, with, not surprisingly, Fernando Torres - who came on in the 60th minute - making no impact as it became a damage limitation exercise.
Straight after Torres’ introduction Lavezzi’s free-kick from the left evaded everyone, including a dithering Cech, and bounced off Luiz for an own goal.
In the 69th minute Ibrahimovic went off. He had not had one of his best night and nor did Cavani.
But just when you expected the 2012 winners of this competition to hold out, they were punished by Pastore.
Mourinho needs to work one of his miracles on Tuesday if Chelsea are to progress.
But they have done it without him before in that glory season, beating Cavani and Lavezzi’s Napoli 4-1 after losing 3-1 in Italy.

Crystal Palace 0-1

Independent:

Crystal Palace 1 Chelsea 0

John Terry administers the fatal cut to Chelsea’s self-inflicted wounds
Mourinho sees his title hopes fade away with a lacklustre and spiritless display against a Palace side that finally rediscovers their vim

Steve Tongue

As the final whistle blew in south London, Gary Cahill slumped to the floor and his Chelsea team-mates trudged from the pitch knowing they had almost certainly lost any chance of becoming Premier League champions this season after another damaging away defeat.
 
Jose Mourinho went to Cahill, picking him up physically and mentally, but now he must do it to the rest of his squad, some of whom do not deserve the same commiserations as the centre-half, before the Champions’ League quarter-final first leg away to Paris St-Germain on Wednesday. Too many of them seemed to feel this would be a stroll in the sunshine to three more points, hopelessly underestimating the spirit that Tony Pulis has installed into his Crystal Palace side after they lost nine of their first 10 League games.
After losing at Aston Villa a fortnight ago, Chelsea recovered to knock out Galatasaray a few days later, but PSG are a cut above that. Mourinho is left to hope that his big game players can rise to the occasion in a manner they were never close to doing here. Of course there were chances, both before and after the unlucky John Terry headed a cross into his own net early in the second half. Even so, two excellent saves from Julian Speroni were all it took to repel them and effectively end the title challenge.
The surprise tactically, and one possible criticism of Mourinho, was that even with David Luiz and Nemanja Matic to mind the shop, Frank Lampard sat so deep in a conventional 4-3-3 formation. What little support there was for Fernando Torres, who was out-of-sorts again, therefore came from Eden Hazard and André Schürrle cutting inside, which in turn meant a lack of width. Not surprisingly Mourinho changed things at half-time, sending on Oscar for Luiz but the Brazilian made as little difference as later substitutes Mohamed Salah and Demba Ba.
A series of different formations in the second half, all equally futile, illustrated Chelsea’s impotence, and Mourinho summed up their frustration near the end when he rebuked a ball boy; claiming later he did not want the youngster to be attacked by one of his players for hanging on to the ball.
In contrast, Palace, after two successive home defeats, have rediscovered all the vim from the early days of Pulis’s reign before Christmas, when a series of home wins had them believing again. No prima donnas here, although their worst mistake after a League victory over Chelsea for the first time since August 1990 (so long ago that Ian Wright scored the winner) would be to slip into the sort of complacency their opponents displayed yesterday.
“To beat Chelsea will give everyone a boost to push on for the last seven games,” Pulis said. “The Premier League is the most competitive league in the world and that’s why it’s a great league. The top teams always have to play well or they can come unstuck.”
After the goal, Palace were able to counter-attack through Cameron Jerome, who hit a post, and Jason Puncheon, a figure of fun when he took the worst penalty of the season at Tottenham, who was outstanding down the right in combination with his full-back Adrian Mariappa.
Like so many Palace managers down the years, Pulis has been talking about the club’s “enormous potential”. Like most of them, however, he has never been in situ long enough to bring it to fruition. To avoid a fifth relegation from the Premier League immediately after going up, they need to start picking up some points on their travels – preferably starting at Cardiff next weekend – as Manchester City and Liverpool are the last visitors to Selhurst. Surely neither can be as anaemic as Chelsea were.
Presumably relieved at how little the visitors had to offer, Palace grew in self-belief. Before half-time they had two strong appeals for penalties as Jerome and Yannick Bolasie went down, as well as a good chance for the latter, who could get no power onto Puncheon’s cross.
Seven minutes into the second half, the left-back Joel Ward crossed and Terry, stretching to beat Joe Ledley to the header, directed it past Petr Cech. With Selhurst rocking and rolling, Chelsea finally forced Speroni into action, the goalkeeper responding with two excellent saves low to his left from Hazard.
Yet the final five opportunities of the match were made by the home side, mainly through breaking out at a pace their opponents did not possess. Jerome, sent through by Mile Jedinak, hit the near post; Ledley hooked wide and pulled another shot across goal; Cech saved from Puncheon and then substitute Stuart O’Keefe. In added time Speroni clutched Branislav Ivanovic’s cross to a Cup-winning roar and Palace had three invaluable and thoroughly deserved points.

Line-ups:

Crystal Palace (4-4-1-1): Speroni; Ward, Dann, Delaney, Ward; Puncheon (Parr, 89), Dikgacoi,Jedinak, Bolasie (O’Keefe, 69);  Ledley; Jerome (Murray, 87).

Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Luiz (Oscar, 46), Matic, Lampard (Salah, 56); Schurrle (Ba, 69), Torres, Hazard.

Referee: Lee Mason
Man of the match:  Jason Puncheon (Crystal Palace).
Match rating: 7/10

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

Observer:

John Terry's own goal gifts Crystal Palace victory as Chelsea are stunned

Dominic Fifield at Selhurst Park

Chelsea's title challenge has run aground south of the river. This derby was supposed to be awkward rather than treacherous but, eclipsed by Crystal Palace's sheer refusal to wilt, the side who had led going into the weekend ended up feeling forlorn. José Mourinho strode from the pitch consoling a distraught Gary Cahill, one of the few visiting players to deserve better, and straight into the home dressing room to congratulate the victors.
This was a result to confound logic even in a gloriously unpredictable top flight. Palace had secured a solitary point from 14 games against the Premier League's top nine before this match, their winless streak stretching back to the start of February with goals having long since dried up. They had not managed one from open play since that last success though, befitting a contest that deviated from the prescribed script, Chelsea scored one for them here. John Terry's own goal early in the second half had Mourinho writing off his team's chances of regaining the title. He scribbled one word down on a piece of paper, preferring not to damn his own out loud, when asked what his team needs if they are to improve. "Balls," read the note. That summed it up.
This was as weak from Chelsea as it was powerful from Palace. The hosts had resisted through the early stages, emulating their rugged first-half displays against Manchester United and Arsenal here this season, and even mustered a flurry of half-chances just before the interval to offer a reminder they might glean greater reward thereafter. Seven minutes after the restart and their endeavours were answered.
The excellent Joel Ward, fed by Yannick Bolasie's pass, summoned a fine cross towards Joe Ledley at the near post only for the Chelsea captain to leap in aerial challenge and flick the ball beyond a stranded Petr Cech. Selhurst Park erupted, the din merely fuelling the home side's conviction. They would go on to miss clearer chances on the counter-attack, striking the post through Cameron Jerome, as their opponents became desperate.
It was the reality that few had seen this coming that took the breath away. Palace have been industrious since Tony Pulis's arrival but had remained ineffective, even blunt, against the division's better opposition. Indeed, theirs had started to feel like a steady decline towards the cut-off. Yet here they countered with verve and threat, and defended with such energy.
"Our results had dropped off, even if the performances had been OK, but to beat Chelsea will give everyone a boost to push on for the last seven games," said Pulis. "The Premier League is the most competitive in the world. The top teams have to play well or they can come unstuck."
Chelsea endured just that, the repercussions of failure critical. Mourinho bemoaned some of his key performers having "disappeared" in certain matches, when opponents have pressed and harried as Palace did so effectively. The same had happened, he suggested, in all their league defeats this term bar the loss at Aston Villa in their previous away game that he will always insist was born of a freakishly poor performance from the referee.
Certainly, key players were anonymous. Fernando Torres's sole contribution of note was to lift a lob over a gaping net as full-time approached, the striker having been carelessly gifted possession by Stuart O'Keefe. Furious occasions such as this tend to pass the Spaniard by and, other than that chance, he never represented a threat in the area.
Yet he was not alone in fluffing his lines. André Schürrle was thwarted at his clearest sight of goal by Ward's lunge, the ball dribbling wide, but none of the visitors' forwards had the bite to make their mark. Even Eden Hazard was peripheral for long periods, briefly rousing himself to curl a wicked shot through a clutch of bodies just after Terry's error that Julian Speroni did well to palm away. The Argentinian has been consistently impressive as one of the division's busier goalkeepers and he managed to better that save with another from the Belgian before the end, Oscar's choked shot having landed at Hazard's feet. The din that greeted the save almost matched the one that heralded the home side's lead.
There were anxious moments before the end, Chelsea flinging bodies forward in search of parity only to be caught too often on the break with Palace, somehow, contriving to miss a succession of chances to settle the match.
Mourinho's words of advice with a ballboy he considered to have been time-wasting added to the drama, though the final whistle, after four minutes of stoppage time, brought relief. Not since Ian Wright's lob in the autumn of 1990 had Palace won against these opponents in the league.
"For their spirit, their commitment, their desire, they deserved it," Mourinho said. "This is the kind of defeat where we can only blame ourselves."

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

Telegraph:

Crystal Palace 1 Chelsea 0:

By Ian Winrow, Selhurst Park

Jose Mourinho insisted this defeat marked the end of Chelsea’s hopes of lifting Premier League trophy and while the manager could be accused of being unduly pessimistic given the narrow margins at the head of the table, his team’s performance against a side fighting relegation offered little to counter the manager’s stance.
A week after they had produced a exhilarating display to crush Arsenal, Chelsea struggled to overcome a side that had mustered just one goal, a penalty and two points from their last five games.
Unconvincing in the first half, Mourinho’s side were unable to raise their levels after John Terry diverted Joel Ward’s cross past Petr Cech in the 52nd minute. The lack of forward power that has been largely disguised throughout the campaign became starkly apparent as Palace stood firm in the face of growing pressure and deserved the victory that moved them five points clear of the bottom three.
Asked to find the resolve to fight back and consolidate their standing at the head of the table, too many of Mourinho’s players were found wanting. A game they had to win turned into a frustrating defeat and, unlike at Aston Villa two weeks previously, Mourinho was unable to divert attention towards the performance of the referee.
In fact, if any team had grounds for complaint, it was Palace who saw two strong first half penalty appeals turned down. There was little doubt the home side deserved their rewards for refusing to be overwhelmed and producing a performance of impressive determination.
The outcome was that instead of increasing the pressure on Manchester City and Liverpool, a second successive away defeat – both to teams in the lower half of the table – handed the initiative to Chelsea’s main rivals in the title race.
There may well be more twists and turns in the final weeks of the season and the proximity of the top teams to each other means no contender can be ruled out yet, but in the tightest contest for several years, one slip was always likely to prove costly and, in Mourinho’s view, two could prove fatal.
A week previously, Chelsea had flown out of the blocks against Arsenal, putting the game beyond Arsène Wenger’s side with an explosive start that brought three goals in the opening 17 minutes. Seven days later and it was a very different story.
Mourinho tinkered with his line-up, opting to go with a three-man midfield of David Luiz, Frank Lampard and Nemanja Matic but the change appeared to upset his side’s fluency, allowing Palace to settle comfortably into the game on warm, sunny afternoon in south London.
The service to forward three Eden Hazard, Fernando Torres and André Schürrle was poor.
When the visitors did manage to create their first real opening of the half in the 18th minute, when Cesar Azpilicueta’s overlap took him behind the home defence and the byline, Schürrle was unable to get a full contact on the Spaniard’s low cross at the far post.
The incident summed up the lack of conviction in Chelsea’s play and while they would improve later in the game, they never found top gear.
It was clear Palace would present a more formidable obstacle than Arsenal had last week and as they grew in confidence, Pulis’s side began to assert themselves.
The pace of Yannick Bolasie and Jason Puncheon down the flanks stretched the visitors and the pair should have produced the opening goal when they combined in 25th minute.
Puncheon was played in behind Azpilicueta by Adrian Mariappa and picked out Bolasie with a cross to the far post. A better first touch would have allowed the winger to place the ball inside Petr Cech’s right-hand post but instead he fired wastefully into the side netting, to the clear frustration of the animated Pulis.
Chelsea were rattled but it could have been worse for Mourinho’s side had referee Lee Mason not dismissed strong penalty appeals after Gary Cahill upended first Cameron Jerome and then, minutes later, Yannick Bolasie.
Mourinho reacted to his side’s frustrating first half display by introducing Oscar for David Luiz but it was Palace who took the initiative.
Within seven minutes of the restart Jerome sent a glancing header wide when he should have done better, but this was soon followed by Terry, under pressure from Joe Ledley, heading into his own goal from Joel Ward’s left-wing cross.
Eden Hazard twice tested the excellent Julián Speroni with powerful shots and Terry headed over from a good position at a corner later in the half, but for all Chelsea’s pressure during the final minutes, they rarely looked capable of breaking down a resolute defence built around the impressive central defensive pairing of Damien Delaney and Scott Dann, and protected by the midfield pair of Mile Jedinak and Kagisho Dikgacoi.
In fact, had Jerome, impressive in the central striker role, managed to steer a left foot shot an inch or two to the left, his 73rd minute shot would have rebounded off the post and into Cech’s goal rather than deflecting away to safety.
Palace’s problems in front of goal have underpinned their difficulties this season, but on this occasion they had the safety net of the opening goal and survived four minutes of injury time to claim a win that carried significance at both ends of the table.

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

Mail:

Crystal Palace 1-0 Chelsea: Terry own goal dents Blues title hopes as Eagles earn shock victory

By Martha Kelner

John Terry curled tightly into a ball inside the penalty area, put his hands to his ears like a child willing the world away after scoring an own goal that may prove fatal to Chelsea’s hopes of winning the Premier League title.
The haunted look on the face of Stamford Bridge’s most fiercely loyal servant after he headed past his own keeper on 52 minutes suggested he realised that this defeat may have left his beloved Chelsea with too much to do to win the league.
Jose Mourinho’s side remain top of the table and equal on points with Manchester City but Manuel Pellegrini's side have two games in hand while Liverpool are one point behind and have one game in hand over Chelsea. Mourinho, who has been playing down his side’s title chances all season, suggested it was too big a challenge.
As he trudged off the pitch at Selhurst Park, patting a dejected Gary Cahill on the back, Mourinho offered a sporting gesture of applause to the Crystal Palace fans. He then went into Tony Pulis’s dressing room to congratulate the Palace players for a display of guts, bravery and togetherness. Certain qualities, he later suggested, were absent in some of his own players.
The Portuguese and most others expected Chelsea to return with three points from Saturday’s game. They have played three other London derbies this month and won them all, scoring 13 goals and conceding just one.
They came to Selhurst Park with huge momentum, on the back of a 6-0 thrashing of Arsenal, Mourinho’s biggest victory at Chelsea. Everything signalled that they would at least run Manchester City or Liverpool close for the title.
But some players, Mourinho suggested without mentioning names, did not fancy an afternoon in unglamorous, deepest South London.
Mourinho’s substitutions – usually so inspired failed to have the desired effect. David Luiz went off after a dire opening half, perhaps still feeling the effects of a wild Yannick Bolasie challenge early in the game.
Fernando Torres could have softened the blow when handed a golden opportunity to grab an equaliser in stoppage time. Stuart O’Keefe, perhaps overawed by the prospect of a momentous victory, played a horrendously judged back-pass to ‘keeper Julian Speroni. But Torres – who had little impact all game – lobbed his attempt over the crossbar. Asked to assess the performance of the £50m Spaniard, Mourinho replied: ‘I like to analyse individual performances when I have something good to say.’
Before the game, the stage had been set for referee Lee Mason to take centre stage. Jose Mourinho spent the week telling anyone who would listen his theory that referee Chris Foy’s performance in Chelsea’s defeat to Aston Villa two weeks ago could prove fatal to his side’s title chances.
Meanwhile, Tony Pulis used his programme notes to broadcast his belief that Palace had been unfairly treated by officials in their last two fixtures and professed his hope that the game would not hinge on a refereeing decision. .
It almost did after Gary Cahill twice brought down a man inside the box within three minutes in the first half.
First, he uprooted Cameron Jerome then he hacked down Yannick Bolasie from behind. Twice, referee Lee Mason waved away penalty appeals. The Palace fans felt hard done by. Tony Pulis leapt about and waved his arms in the air, a man possessed by a sense of injustice, while Mourinho jotted an observation in his notepad. 
Palace have scored just once in their last five league games and so John Terry leaped in to get them back to scoring ways. He dove in front of a Joel Ward cross bound for the head of Joe Ledley and sent the ball flying past a folorn Petr Cech. The look of horror on the face of the recoiling Mourinho was visible from high in the stands.
Mourinho adjusted his formation in the hunt for an equaliser.
He brought off Frank Lampard for Mohamed Salah, who was innefective. Ditto Demba Ba, who came on for Andre Schurrle in the 70th minute.
But this was not just a story of Chelsea mistakes and shortcomings. Mile Jedinak, Jason Puncheon and keeper Julian Speroni were superb.
As Crystal Palace technical coach David Kemp said: ‘You could pick seven, eight or nine star players from our team.
'This was big for the club but big for players too.
'We now have nine wins this season which is very credible for a promoted team.’
This first victory over Chelsea in the league for 23 years lifts them fifth from bottom, five points clear of the drop. 

Crystal Palace (4231): Speroni 7.5; Mariappa 7, Dann 7, Delaney 7, Ward 7; Dikgacoi 7, Jedinak 8; Puncheon 7.5 (Parr 90), Ledley 7, Bolasie 6 (O’Keefe, 70 6); Jerome 7.5 (Murray 88).
Subs not used: Hennessey, McCarthy, Ince, Bannan.
Bookings: Bolasie, Puncheon, Dann, Mariappa.
Manager: Tony Pulis 8.

Chelsea (433): Cech 7; Ivanovic 6.5, Cahill 6, Terry 6, Azpilicueta 6; Luiz 5 (Oscar HT, 6), Matic 5, Lampard 5.5 (Salah 57, 6); Schurrle 6 (Ba 70, 5), Torres 5, Hazard 6.
Subs not used: Hilario, Kalas, Mikel, Willian.
Bookings: Terry.
Manager: Jose Mourinho 6.
MOM: Mile Jedinak

Referee: Lee Mason 6
Player ratings by Matt Barlow at Selhurst Park

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