REACTION: THIS ISN'T REAL




Chelsea's domination of the Barclays Premier League's opening matches continued on Saturday, and Carlo Ancelotti was delighted by his team's second-half performance.

Five goals, two from Nicolas Anelka, two from Salomon Kalou and one from new boy Yossi Benayoun added to Florent Malouda's first-half opener to give us a second consecutive 6-0 league win, hot on the heels of our 8-0 win over Wigan on the final day of last season.

Ancelotti though conceded that for 45 minutes, we were more than matched by our hosts who had the better of the game until two quick goals at the beginning of the second period put the game beyond Roberto Martinez's men.

'I think we are trying to play the same football that we played last year,' said Ancelotti, whose team last season scored 103 goals in the league alone.

'We started very well this season and scored a lot of goals, showing good football. We have to know that today was a tough game and in the first half Wigan played good football and put strong pressure on the pitch, maybe they spent a lot of energy in the first half,' he reasoned. 'The second half was easier for us to have more opportunities to score.'

So what did his side do to maintain parity with their spritely opponents in the opening 45 minutes?

'In the first half we had a lot of difficulty on the pitch and were not able to play our football because there was not the space. I think at that time we defended very well, we didn't give Wigan the opportunity to score and we waited for the right time to score,' the Italian explained.

'This is important because in football you have to be able to defend and attack. It is impossible to have total control of the game with possession, sometimes you have to defend and in the first half we defended very well.'

And how is it that his side have come to score 12 times in the opening two weekends of the season?

'We have a lot of skills, now the best quality is we are able to do a fantastic counter-attack, we have strikers who are fast with ability, so when we have space it is difficult to control for the opponent,' Ancelotti added.

'Obviously we wanted to win the game and to play well, and we did both. We won two games, played good football and scored a lot of goals but we are focused to play good football.

'It is impossible to think we are always to score six goals in a game, this is not real football, this is Playstation.

'It never happened to me, but we have to stay in focus for the next game, try to win the next game and show good football.'

As for Martinez, it is 18 conceded (14 against Chelsea) and none scored in three league matches. Another defeat here must have been hard to take after a bright early showing.

'We were playing against a very talented Chelsea side, and they know how to get leads when they are not the best side out there,' the Spaniard said.

'There are two games in a game, and when you concede cheap goals like we did you go 3-0 down and cannot keep your concentration. The scoreline is hurtful but it doesn't reflect what happened out there.

In the Premier League you have three leagues within a league,' he continued. 'The top five know how to play when they are in front. In the first half they didn't look themselves and I felt we were the better side, but how can you explain that the best side in the first half loses 6-0?'

It is a question that will probably keep him awake for some time, but for Ancelotti and the Blues there will be sound sleep tonight, with our place on top of the table consolidated before next weekend's visit of Stoke to Stamford Bridge.
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