Reading hard done by at the Bridge

Chelsea 4 Reading 2:  A poor offside decision went the way of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and denied Reading a hard-earned point at the home of the European champions. The deficit was two, but Fernando Torres’s first of the season was Chelsea’s third of the evening, and it should clearly have been ruled out after the Spaniard tapped in Ashley Cole’s pass across the face of goal.

Chelsea took the lead after Eden Hazard won a second penalty in two games, and once again Frank Lampard converted as he did against Wigan on Saturday. A procession briefly looked likely but Pavel Pogrebnyak’s cracking 25th minute header levelled the scores and Reading went in front four minutes later when Danny Guthrie’s shot was fumbled into the net by Petr Cech.

Hazard and Juan Mata toiled in vain to manufacture something for the homeside but the equaliser eventually came through centre defender Gary Cahill, whose 69th minute long range effort should really have been held by Adam Federici. Torres's contribution seven minutes from time should have been ruled out and when Federici advanced for a corner at the death, Hazard broke and set up full-back Braislav Ivanovic to add some gloss to a fortunate win.