Chelsea 3-0 Stoke City
by Amar Azam
at Stamford Bridge

Nerves have been left jangling by consecutive defeats but if Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea fight back to overcome Paris St-Germain in the Champions League it will offer a sorely needed confidence boost.

The Blues faithful saw their team lose to Crystal Palace last time out in the league before being comprehensively beaten in the French capital.

The Palace defeat dealt a blow to Chelsea’s title challenge but this routine win got matters back on track.

Goals from Mohamed Salah on his league debut, midfielder Frank Lampard and Willian saw off Stoke and Mourinho was pleased with the victory.

The Chelsea boss said: “Normally after defeats you don’t start confident and I think that is what happened.”

He added: “We went in first-half winning 1-0 but it could have been 3-0 as we played really well in the last 20 minutes of the first half.”

Typical of this side under Mourinho, they are functional more than anything. They were rarely troubled in the first half despite Stoke dominating possession in parts.

Chelsea looked better in the second half after Eden Hazard came off the bench.

Salah scored the opener, slamming home from inside the penalty area after good work from the impressive Nemanja Matic. Lampard scored a second on 61 minutes from a penalty kick, tucking away the loose ball after goalkeeper Asmir Begovic had saved his initial effort.

By the time Willian scored with a superb curling effort on 72 minutes, Stoke’s resistance had broken.

But Mark Hughes’s men, who are looking to finish in the top half of the Premier League for the first time, had played well for much of the game.

Mourinho, whose side go into the PSG match 3-1 down, added: “We have to enjoy the match on Tuesday and not to be scared of it, not lose the tie and go out.”