Stoke 0-2 Chelsea: Fantastic and to a man outstanding!

Chelsea beat Stoke last night with goals from John Terry and Cesc Fabregas in what I believe to be a MASSIVE three points for everyone at the club and the supporters around the world. In what has proven to be a difficult game of late, Chelsea were outstanding to a man.

Stoke away is difficult at the best of times but to travel up there on a cold and windy Monday night and play the way we did was so impressive. I can promise you that each and every single one of us had a feeling before the game that this could have been a potential banana skin but thinking about it now, we should never had worried.

Chelsea have received plaudits for their attacking football and the goals we have scored so far this season. What is important to remember is that this is all based on a solid defensive unit and once again Jose Mourinho's men demonstrated their defensive discipline, game management and a team ethic that never really gave Stoke much of a look in.

Chelsea were helped by the fact that John Terry held off his marker and headed home from yet another Cesc Fabregas assist to make it 1-0 after just two minutes! Chelsea had an advantage and something to hold onto. It was the perfect start.

Stoke for all their play and pressure in the first half only really tested the returning Thibaut Courtois once or twice in the game and dealt with both well. With long distance efforts, headers over the bar and a lack of quality in the final third, Stoke struggled to break us down.

Jose had decided to stick with the Matic & Mikel partnership at the heart of our midfield and again Mikel had a good game. Matic was my man of the match once again as he was quite literally everywhere!

Breaking up play, winning tackles, passing, moving forward with the ball at his feet and just generally patrolling the area in front of our back four, Nemanja Matic produced another outstanding performance.

Cesc Fabregas was again pushed further forward in front of these two and had a really good game also. Picking his passes, working hard without the ball and pushing forward much more than we had seen this season, Fabregas was pulling the Chelsea strings and picked up a goal as reward for his performance.

Some slick passing from one side to the other and back again came to Fabregas who passes the ball to Hazard. Diego Costa makes a run from left to right and takes Shawcross away from the box, Fabregas spots it and makes a run into the box in between defenders, Hazard fires a ball into him and Cesc takes a touch, sets himself and then (although a miss-hit) finds the bottom corner of the net to make it 2-0 and game over.

As I have said, I can sit here and write about every single individual last night but to a man they were outstanding. Stoke are a big physical side and will put you under pressure. You have to deal with that and some strong challenges. Chelsea did more than that last night and proved once again our credentials as real title contenders!

Top of the league at Christmas! We're having a laugh!