The UEFA EPL schedule is back in action on Saturday and Chelsea will be playing one of the top matches against Stoke City and it comes after the club came through with a close win on Wednesday and sitting at third in the Barclays English Premier League table, the Blues will try and get closer to the leaders in Arsenal with a good result over the weekend.
Chelsea sits second on the table with 30 points and they can close the gap with the Gunners playing on Sunday, while Manchester City and Liverpool are next ahead of Everton on the league table. Last match saw a solid performance on the offensive side, but the defensive game plan was sloppy and the Blues allowed three goals against Sunderland and without a great performance from Eden Hazard, the victory may not have been the result. Hazard scored the go-ahead goal twice for the club on Wednesday and it came after Frank Lampard scored the first goal for Chelsea, which tied the match at 1-1 three minutes after Jozy Altidore scored the opening goal of the match.
Hazard put the team up a goal with a score after Lampard and then Sunderland equaled that with a shot from John O'Shea and that prompted another response from Hazard, who put the club up 3-2 before an own goal from Phillip Bardsley made it a two goal deficit and although he scored one after in the 86th minute, it wasn't enough to get the draw. Last weekend Chelsea had a much easier day with Southampton despite an early lapse, as they scored the final three goals of the match after allowing a first minute goal to Jay Rodriguez. Gary Cahill scored in the 55th minute and then John Terry and Demba Ba added goals in the second half to power the team ahead and now they will try and keep up their winning ways on Saturday at Britannia Stadium.
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Mourinho looked as if he did not know whether to laugh or cry after watching his Eden Hazard-inspired Chelsea side hang on for a 4-3 Premier League victory at bottom of the table Sunderland.
Belgium winger Hazard was in irrepressible mood on Wednesday, scoring twice and laying on another goal for Frank Lampard, but every time the Londoners seemed like taking a grip of proceedings they allowed Sunderland back into the game.
"We played a phenomenal match, our best away from home this season," Mourinho told reporters after 2012 European champions Chelsea stayed second in the table, four points behind leaders Arsenal.
"There was top quality, great creativity in the three attacking players behind Fernando Torres and beautiful goals.
"The game is about that but it's also about basic things and we failed in those basic things," said Mourinho.
"The most basic is to defend set plays. In a game where we should win clearly because of the way we played, we had a risk until the last second."
Jozy Altidore turned sharply eight meters out to fire Sunderland in front early on before Hazard set up a simple close-range header for Lampard in the 17th minute.
The Belgian made it 2-1 after another mesmerizing run, only to see defender John O'Shea equalize when Chelsea failed to clear a corner.
Hazard weaved in and out of the home defense again before driving the ball into the corner of the net in the 62nd minute and victory seemed assured when Phil Bardsley slid a cross from substitute Demba Ba into his own net with six minutes left.
Bardsley then took advantage of more Chelsea confusion at a corner to give Sunderland hope of stealing a point.
"Hazard gave his best performance for me," said Mourinho. "We know about his talent but for the first time under me he showed ambition from the first minute to the last.
"He has great talent but sometimes he can disappear from games. He, Juan Mata and Willian were creative and dynamic - they gave the team what they needed."
Sunderland manager Gustavo Poyet, a former Stamford Bridge favorite, also saluted Hazard's performance.
"Hazard was unplayable," said Poyet. I don't remember a player performing at this level against me as a manager.
"We tried everything. We needed another football."
(Reuters)
