Derby 2-0

Independent:

Derby County 0 Chelsea 2
Jose Mourinho hopes to see Steve McClaren next season as Derby handed target
Kevin Garside

Jose Mourinho doesn’t get many stress-free afternoons. His hair might be back to black were life like this every week. Even Jon Obi Mikel troubled the scorers, netting his fourth goal in 300 games as Chelsea administered some Premier League shock treatment to a team chasing promotion from the Championship.
Steve McClaren will keep Derby’s foot to the floor, of course. He did not need this lesson in football fundamentals to comprehend the scale of the task should they maintain their upward trajectory towards nirvana.
Two goals in five minutes after the break, the first a glancing header by Mikel from Willian’s free-kick, the second a typically audacious effort from Oscar, dipping his shoulder and letting fly from the right side of the area, were poor reward for the possession Chelsea enjoyed.
Mourinho knows that story. He spent the first half in a stony vigil at pitchside watching his team butcher what opportunities they fashioned. Samuel Eto’o in deceleration mode is some sight. Put clean through by Mikel the former Cameroon Express stumbled towards goal like a pub player, finally being bumped off the ball by the late-arriving Andre Wisdom.
He was not the only offender. Chelsea should have been three to the good but the ball fell to Fernando Torres, a second-half substitute for Eto’o. Talk about like for like. Torres was through on goal then tackled by the goalkeeper. Hopeless.
That Derby’s goal was a coconut shy in the second half was not surprising. When Mourinho sought a change of gear he snapped his fingers and onto the pitch stepped substitutions to the value of £82m. You could buy half the Peak District for that.
Willian and Oscar were a class above in the Chelsea midfield and then some. David Luiz, too, breaking out of defence to detonate attack after attack. For Derby, 18-year-old prospect Will Hughes looked like a sixth former who had wandered onto the wrong pitch. His midfield sidekick Jeff Hendrick was, in contrast, exceptional. 
“We played against one of the best teams not just in the Premier League but in Europe. Sometimes you can’t get near,” McClaren said. “Started well, finished well. We just had a five-minute spell for the two goals.
“Willian put in a great delivery for the first. You can’t do much about the second,” he added. “Today was about how far we have come and how far we can go. You don’t get this quality every week in the Championship. Apart from the result I could not be more delighted.
“We have 22 games left. The players have set the standard. The fans and the players expect that every week now. This is where we want to be, playing sides like this every week. Playing in front of a 32,000-packed arena takes me back to the days I was here with Jim Smith. The players said in the dressing room, they want more of this.”
Mourinho wished McClaren well and said he hoped to see him here again next year in the league. “I’m not an expert on the Championship but Steve is doing a very good job, already in a play-off position and in a good place to get promotion,” he said. “It was difficult. In the first half we didn’t play bad but 0-0. At half-time that is a big risk. They got the message that in the second half we needed extra intensity. We played seriously. Job done against a good Championship team. The players respected their opponents. We did not need a second game.”
The only blot on the landscape was the dive by Ramires in the second half. Having cut inside Michael Keane, the Brazilian threw himself to the deck with no hope of maintaining control of the ball. Andre Marriner reached straight for the yellow card. How long before red is the preferred sanction for the offence? Maybe then the cancer can be cut from the game.
Mourinho, who condemned Luis Suarez for the same offence a week ago, made no attempt to defend his player. “If the referee was there and he decided, that is good. We are all fighting against it. I will talk to Ramires. My worry is what is happening in other leagues and cultures. I know that English teams will suffer in the Champions League and Europa League. Of this I’m certain. Here we have top referees. We are trying to attack it and they are supporting it.”
McClaren erred on the side of diplomacy. “It was slippy. Maybe he just fell over,” the Derby manager said.

Derby (4-1-4-1) Grant 7, Forsyth, 7 Buxton, 7, Wisdon 6, Keane 6; Eustace 7 (Sammon, 71); Ward 6 (Bennett, 71), Hendrick 8, Hughes 5, Dawkins 7 (Bailey, 82); Martin 7

Chelsea (4-2-3-1) Schwarzer 6, Cole 6, Luiz 8, Cahill 7, Azpilicueta 7; Essien 6 (Hazard, 54), Mikel 7; Oscar 8 (Baker, 87), Willian 8, Ramires 7; Eto’o 5 (Torres, 63)

Match rating: 7/10
Man of the match: Oscar

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Guardian:
Chelsea strike twice to give Derby harsh history lesson in the FA Cup
Daniel Taylor

By the end Chelsea were toying with their opponents and the Derby County fans who would probably rather forget the indignities of their last season in the Premier League, with a record low of 11 points, were reminded how brutal it can be against this kind of refined opposition.
They lost 6-1 against Chelsea that season and, though the latest defeat was nothing like as harrowing, José Mourinho's team made it a harsh history lesson during those moments in the second half when their domination of the ball turned into the hard currency of goals.
The gulf was considerable and the Championship team had to give everything to prevent any more damage beyond Mikel John Obi's 66th-minute header and the shot from Oscar, the game's outstanding's performer, that carried so much swerve and power to deceive Lee Grant in the Derby goal.
Fernando Torres menaced them after replacing Samuel Eto'o, whose performance merely reiterated his own decline, and it was just a pity for Chelsea that Ramires had to tarnish the occasion by becoming the latest Chelsea player to be caught diving.
He was booked, following on from Oscar's yellow card at Southampton on New Year's Day, and it represents an embarrassment to Mourinho bearing in mind it is only a week since he concluded his criticism of Luis Suárez for his "acrobatic swimming-pool jump" by proudly declaring his players would not resort to such tactics.
Mourinho would not budge an inch afterwards, pointing out they were "isolated incidents" rather than serial offending, but it was an unwanted sideshow and his argument has been diminished.
The bottom line was that Chelsea did not need to resort to anything underhand to guarantee their fourth-round tie against Stoke City. They had to withstand a spirited start from Derby and Steve McClaren was not being unduly generous when he said his players could be encouraged by their efforts. "Someone said to me we actually had more players in our squad than they do. I said: 'Yeah but look at the value.' One of theirs was worth as much as ours together."
At first that disparity was not always apparent. Eto'o's rotten first touch to spoil Chelsea's first real chance of note was not the only moment of carelessness from Mourinho's players in the opening 20 minutes. That was the point, however, when Oscar emerged as the most influential player on the pitch. Two of his long-range efforts went close and the opening half finished with Ramires's shot taking a slight deflection to skim against a post.
At half-time Mourinho was not entirely happy. "We didn't play badly," he said. "We played quite well but still 0-0 at half-time is a big risk because in the second half, if the opponent scores one, you are in trouble."
Yet this was not an occasion when Will Hughes, Derby's talented but raw midfielder, demonstrated why he is attracting so much interest from Premier League clubs. The 18-year-old looked lightweight and Mourinho took advantage by withdrawing one of his own central midfielders, Michael Essien, to leave Mikel as a lone anchor man and spring Eden Hazard from the bench. Once again a Chelsea victory can be largely attributed to Mourinho's talent for changing his team mid-match.
Hazard's introduction immediately coincided with their best period of the match and Derby were already looking vulnerable by the time Jamie Ward brought him down for the free-kick that led to the opening goal. Mikel, making his 300th Chelsea appearance, had been handed the captain's armband when Essien went off – Mourinho later said it should have gone to Ashley Cole – and the ball flashed off his forehead for only his fourth goal in eight seasons at the club.
There was a period after Grant had let in Oscar's shot when it suddenly looked as though Derby's afternoon might turn into an ordeal. Torres danced round Jake Buxton and went past Grant but was crowded out before being able to apply the finishing touch. In the next attack the Spaniard ran clear again and drove his shot against Grant's legs. Derby were largely holding on before a brief, late flurry of their own, with Chris Martin's left-foot shot probably ranking as their best effort of the match.
The dive from Ramires, running beyond Michael Keane, came between the goals and what a strange twist of irony that this was the referee, Andre Marriner, who had been officiating when the same player went to ground and won a highly contentious penalty against West Bromwich Albion at Stamford Bridge in November.
"The last time [with Oscar] I was happy with the card and I was happy with Oscar's justification of the situation," Mourinho said. "This time I didn't speak with Ramires but Marriner was so close, if he made that decision it was because he was right.
"I maintain [we have no divers]. You will see when Oscar dives again and you will see when Ramires will be booked again. In other clubs there are really divers. If you want to look for players doing it every weekend, it's very easy. Sit in front of the television and you will find them. We do the opposite." Ramires, one imagines, should expect the point to be made very matter-of-factly.

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Telegraph :
Derby County 0 Chelsea 2
By Henry Winter

In the competition that thrives on shocks, John Obi Mikel stunned his own fans, as well as Derby County’s, with a rare goal, marking his 300thChelsea appearance with only his fourth ever goal for the club.
“He scores when he wants,’’ chanted the jubilant 5,500 visiting fans when they recovered from the sight of Mikel putting the ball into an opponent’s net. He scores once every two seasons.
There was to be no magic of the FA Cup in this part of the East Midlands on Sunday as theChampionship side deservedly succumbed to the class of the Premier League visitors, but there was surprise at Mikel’s intervention. The Nigeria international seemed inspired by taking the armband from the departing Michael Essien, although it was slightly odd that Ashley Cole did not assume the honours.
Mikel led by example, rising strongly to meet Willian’s free-kick, and head past Lee Grant as Chelsea took control of this third-round tie midway through the second half. Oscar, comfortably the man of the match, struck a superb second to guarantee Chelsea’s progression to a fourth-round date with Mark Hughes’s Stoke City back at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea will hope this is an omen. The last time they faced Stoke in the FA Cup, they prevailed in the quarter-finals with goals from Frank Lampard and John Terry en route to the 2010 final (and victory over Portsmouth). Chelsea and Stoke first met in the Cup in 1934 when Hughie Gallacher and his team-mates were beaten 3-1 at the Victoria Ground. The tie brings back memories of Peter Osgood’s double at the Bridge in 1969 and in 2003 when Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Jesper Gronkjaer lit up the second half at the Britannia.
Their journey towards another Cup date with Stoke had a controversial moment: another dive by a Chelsea player. Four days after Jose Mourinho expressed his disappointment with Oscar for his dive against Southampton’s Kelvin Davis, another of his Brazilians took a tumble here.
Ramires decided needlessly to check the laws of gravity by falling to earth in close proximity to the blameless Michael Keane.
Deceived by Ramires’s dive when challenged by West Brom’s Steven Reid on Nov 9, Andre Marriner was not going to be fooled again. No to a penalty. Yes to a yellow card. Mourinho, whose old Porto Champions League winners were some of the worst exponents of diving, commented that he would talk to Ramires and clearly needs to clamp down on the cheating by some of his players. It was a pity that Ramires’s subterfuge should distract from an excellent second-half display by the Premier League side.
For Championship Derby, this was a reminder of the class in the division they aspire to. Chelsea brought on Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres, £82 million worth of substitutes as well as the debut-making Lewis Baker in midfield. Steve McClaren, who once masterminded a Middlesbrough victory over Mourinho’s Chelsea, is building a promising side from a limited budget, particularly looking at loan signings like Keane, the Manchester United centre-half, and Liverpool’s Andre Wisdom, who showed some good touches and anticipation at right-back.
Patrick Bamford, a tall, young forward, has signed from Chelsea on loan for the rest of the season. Chris Martin, who led Derby’s line with real heart against Chelsea, could do with the support Bamford will bring. There were glimpses of the undoubted talent of Will Hughes, particularly late on, but this was an instructive if occasionally painful lesson for the youngster meted out by sharper, more experienced opponents.
Derby remain a work in progress, although clearly going in the right direction under McClaren, and doing well in a scoreless first half.
Their fans packed out the iPro Stadium, chanting “olé” at an early passing move, cheering when Wisdom outmuscled Willian. There was little fear being shown by McClaren’s players. Jamie Ward was lively down the right.
Jeff Hendrick, the 21-year-old Dubliner being watched by Martin O’Neill, kept striding through the middle. Craig Forsyth, pushing on from full-back, crossed low and hard, and only Cole’s timeless sense of positioning rescued Chelsea. John Eustace, briefly forsaking his holding duties, unleashed a shot blocked by David Luiz.
Having greeted McClaren with a hug, Mourinho showed his respect for Derby and the competition by picking a reasonably strong side. Chelsea should have scored midway through the first half. Mikel took the ball off Keane and sent Samuel Eto’o down the inside-left channel. The attacker who has graced Champions League finals surprisingly hesitated and Wisdom covered back well.
Chelsea were coming more into the game, their Brazilians to the fore. Oscar and Willian linked well, requiring Jake Buxton to head clear a cross from Oscar. Ramires shot wide. Oscar twice went close. Ramires hit a post as the half closed.
The entertainment continued at half-time with the DJ playing Rat Trap and White Man in Hammersmith Palais before Chelsea re-emerged to Welcome to the Jungle. They soon cut a swathe through. Ramires struck the bar. Having replaced Essien, Hazard was beginning to make his mark, soon stopped illegally by Ward on Chelsea’s left after 65 minutes. Willian whipped in the free-kick for Mikel to head easily past Grant.
Ramires then embarrassed himself with that dive before his compatriot, Oscar, scored a gem after 71 minutes, striking the ball so hard, and with a touch of swerve, that Grant could only punch it into his net. Torres, who replaced Eto’o, then dribbled through, bemusing Buxton with one turn, but like the Chelsea fans coming off the M1 he ran into heavy traffic.
Derby rallied late on. Hughes finally gave notice of his skills with a pass that drew applause from the home fans. Martin was denied by Mark Schwarzer. Derby’s players left the pitch to warm applause as Mourinho walked across to shake hands with McClaren and say he hoped to come here again next season – “in the Premier League, not the FA Cup”.

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Mail:

Derby 0 Chelsea 2: Mikel and Oscar net as Chelsea cruise through to fourth round.. but Ramires courts controversy with dive

By Matt Barlow

It was a day of mixed fortunes for Chelsea midfielders. Ramires won no applause for his dive but John Mikel Obi was hailed for his courage as he ventured into unfamiliar territory wearing armbands.
Well, he had one, even if he wasn’t meant to, and it seemed to make all the difference as Mikel rose to head Chelsea into the lead. It was only his fourth goal in seven-and- a-half years at the club and came on his 300th appearance.
Perhaps it was the armband, thrust into his possession when captain Michael Essien went off, that supplied him with the extra buoyancy and added confidence required on a rare excursion into the deep end of the pitch.
‘There was a smile on my face,’ said manager Jose Mourinho.
‘I never recognised his ability to score goals. I recognised his ability to play as an anchorman. He reads the game well and he plays that position in a very intelligent and safe way. I never recognised his goalscoring appetite.
‘For some reason, Essien gave him the armband when normally it should go to Ashley Cole, and it made him believe he was a  goalscorer. It was important. We were dominating and creating but the goal was not arriving. It was like the winning goal.’
Mikel leapt at the near post to flash a header past Lee Grant from a free-kick by Willian in the 66th minute. Oscar smashed in the second six minutes later, an effort Grant should have saved, and Chelsea eased into the fourth round of the FA Cup without fuss.
Derby manager Steve McClaren was left to speak of the belief he has in his team to complete their promotion drive and of his joy at the terrific atmosphere generated by more than 32,000 packed into Pride Park, where there is a genuine sense that the good times are returning.

‘It takes me back to when I was with Jim Smith, when the place was rocking,’ said McClaren. ‘We want more of this. That’s what we want to bring here. We played against one of the best teams in Europe. I couldn’t be more proud.’
Derby finished with a flurry when Conor Sammon forced Mark Schwarzer into a rare save and Mason Bennett went close, but Chelsea had dominated.
McClaren’s pride will stem from the organisation and industry of his players as they restricted the Barclays Premier League team to efforts mainly from distance in the first half. Oscar shaved the frame of the goal with a free-kick and Ramires curled a low shot against the foot of a post.
The introduction of Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres — two substitutes signed for combined fees of more than £80million — altered the complexion of the game.  Hazard added tempo and energy and won the free-kick for Mikel’s opener.
Torres simply put himself about far more than Samuel Eto’o. About 5,500 Chelsea fans made the trip to the East Midlands and they cheered their approval when Eto’o was replaced.
There was a time when Torres had the opposite effect, but the arrival of Eto’o may turn out to be the best thing that has happened to him in his career in London.
As at Southampton on New Year’s Day, Torres was lively but this time a goal eluded him. He was clean through twice in a minute, with his team already 2-0 up, but could not find the net.
The Spaniard sidestepped the goalkeeper on the first occasion, only to lose the ball under his own feet and allow Derby’s defenders to recover.
When he was slipped clear again, seconds later, he struck it early and struck it sweet. The shot arrowed towards the far corner but Grant made a splendid save with his right hand.
Ramires hit the woodwork again with a deflected shot which spun over the goalkeeper and bounced off the top of the bar but the Brazilian spoiled another wonderfully tireless display with a dive, when Chelsea were one goal ahead.
 It was very similar to the incident against West Bromwich Albion in November when Ramires drove into the box and referee Andre Marriner awarded a late penalty, which was scored by Hazard and salvaged a point for Chelsea.
On that occasion the video replays suggested Marriner had been conned but this time he was on the spot and pulled out his yellow card. ‘The pitch was slippy, maybe he just fell over,’ said McClaren, diplomatically.
Maybe. Or maybe they should consider a Premier League footballers’ special for the dreadful TV diving show Splash!

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Mirror:
Derby 0-2 Chelsea:
Unlikely hero John Obi Mikel guides Blues into FA Cup fourth round

An unlikely hero, an altogether unsurprising result.
But on a day when Jose Mourinho, again, had to answer claims of a Chelsea dive culture, one of the more understated members of his squad proved the difference.
John Obi Mikel, it is fair to say, has at least as many ­Stamford Bridge detractors as supporters.
Yet, on a rumbustious afternoon when, for more than an hour, Chelsea’s big game hunters left their shooting boots in London, it was Mikel who found the way past Steve McClaren and his battlers.
The Nigerian’s flick from Willian’s expert free-kick was his second goal of the season, fourth of his Blues career, and third in the FA Cup.
All scored under Mourinho, in two spells, and on his 300th Chelsea appearance, too, although the manager admitted: “I never recognised his ability to score goals! I recognise his ability to play the anchor role, keep possession, be comfortable and read the game very well. But I never recognised his goalscoring appetite.
“When I saw he’d scored there was a smile on my face. For some reason, Michael Essien gave him the armband rather than Ashley Cole.
“It maybe made him believe he was a goalscorer. It was important because we were dominating and creating but the goal wouldn’t come.”
Mourinho was right, and while Oscar’s second killed off the contest, this was threatening to be an uncomfortable afternoon, with questions over the mindset of too many of the Portuguese’s stars.
The biggest would have been asked of Samuel Eto’o. Slumbering, slovenly, ­seemingly disinterested, his fearful hash of a chance to convert Mikel’s pass summing up the difference between him and Derby’s energetic youngsters.
Admittedly, McClaren set the Rams up with numbers in midfield and at the back, yet Chelsea should still have had the quality to break them down.
Instead, despite Oscar’s magical feet doing plenty of talking, it was not until ­first-half stoppage time that Lee Grant was called into action, repelling Cesar Azpilicueta’s cross-shot.
Oscar had gone close on three occasions previously, while Ramires’ deflected effort flicked the outside of the post on the break, yet Derby, primarily through Jamie Ward, had threatened on the counter.
Once again, it needed Mourinho to make his changes to get the Blues going. On came Eden Hazard for Essien, and Fernando Torres for the dismal Eto’o. Within two minutes of Torres’ arrival, Chelsea were in front.
Enter Ramires, falling under no contact after turning past Michael Keane. Unlike against West Brom two months ago, Andre Marriner got this one ­absolutely right.
Not that it altered the inevitable course of events. After Oscar beat Grant at his near-post to claim the goal his display deserved, Torres rounded the keeper and lost his footing, Ramires hit the bar and while Derby had a late rally, it was cosmetic.
“I’m proud of our efforts,” said McClaren, delighted by the commitment of Ward, Will Hughes and his back line. “It showed how far we’ve come.”
Not enough, though, to derail the Blues’ ­bandwagon, one that is gathering speed and earned a fourth-round home tie with Stoke.
Mourinho added: “At half-time the message was that we needed extra intensity and to put them in more difficult situations.
“We made the changes to bring extra attacking players on, so we could hurt them more.
“The team played ­seriously, we won and did a good job."