Roman Abramovich paid a visit to Chelsea's training ground Thursday, clearly unhappy with the way the European champions had let slip a two-goal advantage against Juventus in the Champions League.
In the past, these visits from the Russian owner have generally led to the firing of the manager, but Roberto Di Matteo is not too worried. "He actually comes quite often, to be honest," Di Matteo told reporters. "He likes to be involved and he comes down whenever he can.
"He's the owner and he likes to know what's going on and he likes to speak to people -- and he does that all the time. At a big club, you always have a pressure and you have to try to win games and try to win games in the right manner as well.
"That's part of being part of a big club.
"Obviously, we weren't happy about the result we got on Wednesday night, for sure, so it wasn't a particularly happy camp yesterday here.
"But we'll have to try to pick ourselves up and go again and try to win points in the Premier League now. I have to focus on my job and try to prepare the players and the team to the best for tomorrow's game."
Saturday's English Premier League game will be a tough encounter against Stoke City, and Di Matteo knows nothing but three points will appease the doubters. "Stoke haven't been involved in a game this week, which we need to take into consideration," the Italian said.
"It's always a difficult game against them and we have found it hard to break them down. It's not just due to their physical approach, they are very well organised defensively as well.
"Michael Owen is a natural goalscorer, he's a very good signing for Stoke. I was a bit surprised as he's not very tall, like a lot of their players, but he's still very dangerous and I'm sure they will benefit from his qualities."
Oscar announced his arrival on the European stage in grand fashion with a brace against Juventus, but the Brazilian international, who is yet to make a start in the Premier League, will find Stoke and their physicality a challenge. "Certainly it's going to be a more physical game, because the Premier League in general is a bit more like that," Di Matteo said.
"But I'm pretty sure he's ready for that. He's an intelligent man and player and he will find ways to get around it."
Chelsea's lack of strikers has been a topic of debate for a while now, with the burden on Fernando Torres increased further, after Daniel Sturridge was ruled out due to injury. Torres started the season well, promising the striker of old, but has tailed off quite a bit in the last few games, making some wonder where the goals are going to come from.
Di Matteo, however, is confident his side are not short on goals, with the plethora of attacking midfielders at his disposal. "We don't want to put pressure on one player to score all the goals, it's the same as it was last season, we need to spread the goals around," he said.
"We've signed a different type of player. (Juan) Mata scored many goals last season, (Eden) Hazard has scored, Oscar scored two on Wednesday and (Frank) Lampard also scores, so we certainly have goals in the team."
