Fernando Torres and Eden Hazard put on an offensive show in the first half as Chelsea scored their third-straight victory in the English Premier League with a 2-0 win over Newcastle United.
Hazard opened the scoring from the penalty spot, after Vurnon Anita, making a start for the injured Cheik Tiote, tripped Torres inside the box. With regular penalty taker Frank Lampard left on the bench, the Belgian international, who had won two penalties in the last two matches for his side, stepped up and calmly slotted it past goalkeeper Tim Krul to make it 1-0.
The first half was all Chelsea, and they deservedly increased their advantage, with the Torres-Hazard duo combining again. Torres played a one-two with Hazard, whose backheel was brilliantly finished by the Spaniard from just outside the box.
Newcastle woke up in the second half and tried their best to get something out of the game, but the Chelsea backline held firm and saw their side through to another victory.
Roberto Di Matteo was all praise for Hazard and Torres. "Hazard has quite a lot of assists and it was good for him to get his first goal, and the second goal from Torres was terrific play by us," the Chelsea manager said.
"But it is not just Torres linking with Hazard. He has a very good link up and understanding with Mata and the other midfield players, and the whole team. Thanks to his team members, he has been able to slide into our team and play very comfortably with the others.
"We watched him a lot last season but it is a different league so you are never sure how quick he can adapt, but he seems to have found his feet very quickly and he is a wonderful player for us.
"Torres was very important for us last season, maybe not scoring as much but providing and working hard for the team. He is a great team player as well. I know we ask strikers to score but not only that."
Di Matteo was also happy with his side's defensive effort, after posting a clean sheet against a dangerous Newcastle side. "We controlled the Newcastle threats very well and we didn't concede much to them because if you give a little bit of time and space to Ba, Cisse, Ben Arfa or Cabaye they can hurt you," the Italian said. "Ryan Bertrand and Ashley Cole on the left-hand side did a wonderful job in keeping that side quiet and two clean sheets in the first three games, we can be happy with that.
"We have three internationals we are using in the central defence position and we will need all three to be that strong, so it is great that the partnerships are working whichever two are playing. For us to be successful it is what we need. And we are playing Ivanovic on the right who is another who can center-back."
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew was disappointed with his team's lacklustre performance in the first half, a performance which eventually lost them the game. "First half I thought we lacked a bit of spark but Chelsea were good," Pardew said. We had a go second half and didn't shut up shop."
Newcastle defender Steven Taylor concurred. "It couldn't have been any worse than the first half," Taylor told the club's official website.
"We didn't turn up in the first half, it's as simple as that. For us there was no energy on the pitch, or belief.
"The second half was much, much better and I think we bossed it be fair.
"When we got the ball in the last 15 minutes, there were some good chances there and that could have got us going. You could see Chelsea at times struggling a little bit, and we had them on the back-foot a few times and I think we caused them some problems.
"But we can't afford to have 45 minutes like that every week. We paid the price first half.
"We probably gave them too much respect and let them have too much of the ball. That's what hurt us and we can learn from that and just get on with the next game."
