Chelsea 1 Stoke City 0
Chelsea: Oscar 27'
Man of the match: Oscar (Chelsea)
LONDON // No Mata, no matter. Chelsea were never going to be nostalgic for long. After the gracious goodbye of the former favourite, their focus switched back to the present with an ominous blend of professionalism and panache.
Juan Mata is history, Oscar the future and, after the amicable parting of the ways with the Spaniard, Chelsea prospered under the direction of another elegant creator.
Jose Mourinho has long been a manager with a fine sense of timing. It was apparent again on Sunday. The day after Chelsea concluded the club record £37.1 million (Dh224.7m) deal to take Mata to Manchester United provided a first opportunity to assess if it was a mistake. Will Chelsea miss Mata? Not if Oscar can continue scoring free kicks with such style. Not if he influences games with deft footwork and understated directness.
Truth be told, Chelsea began preparing for life after United’s costliest signing last year. The Spaniard’s exit had its genesis in Mourinho’s summer decision that Oscar was the playmaker in chief, the man granted the central role Mata prefers.
The World Cup winner wrote an open letter to the Chelsea fans. Oscar’s eloquence tends to be confined to the pitch but he can make a ball talk for him. Stoke City were beaten by a free kick struck with whip and pace. Asmir Begovic edged fractionally to his left and was unable to react in time when the ball then flew past him on his right side.
And so the Brazilian helped Chelsea into the last 16 of the FA Cup where a more daunting test awaits. Like Mata, they are Manchester bound, but to face City.
“Big game: good,” said Mourinho, in staccato. He is, as he has often proved, a big-game manager. He masterminded an FA Cup triumph in 2006. Indeed, Chelsea have won the competition four times in the last seven seasons and, in an indication of the instability at Stamford Bridge, under four different managers.
Change is a constant. The difference now is that players are coming and going, whereas managers used to be the first men cast aside. So there was no Mata, but there was Matic: Nemanja Matic, who made his first start for Chelsea after being re-signed from Benfica. There is another addition, too, as Mourinho confirmed Chelsea have brought in Basel’s Egypt winger Mohamed Salah. Given the performances of Oscar and Eden Hazard, he could face a Mata-esque battle to win a place.
The goal highlighted the deceptive menace a boyish figure possesses. Oscar almost scored a second, striking the near post when supplied by Hazard, another of the flair players Mourinho preferred to Mata. A third, Andre Schurrle, hit the woodwork, when found by Oscar.
And that hinted at the sole problem for Chelsea: a dominant display yielded a solitary goal. Near-misses abounded with a fit-again Frank Lampard and Oscar both close and Begovic clawing away a thunderbolt of a free kick from David Luiz. Most glaringly, Samuel Eto’o contrived to shoot wide from four yards after Hazard, the tormentor of full-backs, had surged away from Geoff Cameron. “One-nil is short for the way we controlled the game,” said Mourinho.
Nevertheless, a seventh successive win was secured. Extending that run will be difficult with February trips to the Etihad Stadium in both the Premier League and the FA Cup.
“No problem,” shrugged Mourinho, even if it was not the ideal present on his 51st birthday. “If we want to be the best, we have to play against the best.”
He has argued City are the favourites in the title race and suggested his new-look group remain a work in progress. “Different profiles,” he insisted.
“One team is an end product, another is a team that needs to improve and has a long way to go, but we are playing well at the moment.”
So Stoke can testify. They were flattered by the scoreline and were muted as an attacking force, although Peter Crouch was off target with a couple of early headers and Stephen Ireland drilled a shot into the side-netting.
Stoke have the Premier League’s poorest away record and, albeit in a different competition, this was another defeat on the road against top-flight opposition.
“More positives than negatives, I would suggest,” said manager Mark Hughes, but it was a strangely upbeat assessment.
sports@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE
