Wigan Ath 0 Chelsea 2

Last updated : 19 August 2012 By Paul Lagan

Goal from Branislav Ivanovic and a penalty from Frank Lampard secured all three points for Chelsea at the DW Stadium against Wigan this afternoon.

It took the Blues one minute and 50 seconds in fact to put behind their poor pre-season form and it was a classic counter-attack.

Breaking up a Wigan attack the ball was fed, in the centre circle spot to Eden Hazard.

The Belgium midfielder spun round James McCarthy  before itching the perfect defence-splitting ball to overlapping Branislav Ivanovic, on the right. 

The Serbian full-back raced into the Wigan area and cooly slotted the ball home comfortably past Ali Al Hasbi.

Things got better for the visitors four minutes later when Hazard, this time on the right, received the ball and tried to skip around Ivan Ramis. However the defender upended  £32m Hazard and referee Mike Jones pointed to the penalty spot.

Up stepped Frank Lampard to smash the ball home to double the lead.

Wigan to heir credit, responded well from the early setback and forced the Blues back. But Petr Cech was on hand to snatch out of the air any ball centred by Victor Moses or Maynor Figueroa on the Wigan wings.

Wigan's skipper Gary Caldwell entered the ref's book with a scything tackle from behind on Hazard on 16 minutes.

Three  minutes later,  ex-Chelsea striker Franco Di Santo had an excellent chance to score when he rose above David Luiz and met a deep right-wing cross from Moses.

However, his header from eight yards out just dipped over Cech's crossbar.

A blistering drive from Moses from the right of the Chelsea area, on 39 minutes forced Cech into making a fine save.

Deep into added time, Wigan broke quickly - a deflected knock-on by Luiz saw the ball fall perfectly to Di Santo, but once again, Cech was equal to the task, parrying away the right-footed drive to safety.

The second half started similar to the first with the Blues in the ascendency.

Ashley Cole's hack over Al Hasbi's goal on 58 minutes, a testimony that Cole is a defender not a striker.

Fernando Torres had a chance to seal the game on 64 minutes when a flick on by

Ryan Bertrand saw the Spain hit-man race into the Wigan penalty area.

However, after getting a touch to the ball, which went under Al Hasbi's body, Torres saw his effort  dribble towards goal before being hacked away by Ramis  on the line.

Oscar, a £25m summer signing from Internacional entered the fray for his Chelsea debut for a tiring Hazrad a minute later.

It took the Brazil midfielder 30 seconds before he almost struck gold. He outpaced Ramis on the right and let fly with a daisy-cutter which inched past Al Hasbi's right-hand post.

Jordi Gomz, with 15 minutes to go, drove a fierce left-footed free-kick past the Chelsea rearguard, but Cech, safe as ever, snuffed out the chance.

Wigan Substitute Arouna Kone's bullet header from a Gomez's corner beat Cech and zipped past Cech's post with seven minutes remaining as he home side went into overdrive to get back the game.

Gomez then had an athletic overhead kick inch wide of Chelsea's goal as the Blues dug in deep to defend their two-goal advantage.

But the Blues had enough nous and experience to defend deep and run out time.

Next up for Chelsea is a midweek game, at home to Reading.


Teams: Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole, Bertrand, Lampard, Mikel, Mata, Torres, Hazard

Sub: Turnbull, Cahill, Ferreira, Essien, Meireles, Oscar, Sturridge.

Wigan: Al Hasbi,   Alcaraz, McCarthy, Caldwell, Di Santo, Maloney, Moses, McArthur, Boyce, Ramis, FigueroaSubs: Kone, Jones, Crusat, Watson, Pollitt, Gomez, Bosselli
Referre: Mike Jones
Ends