Reading - 0 Chelsea - 1: Reading were never going to be a dummy run for Chelsea before Barcelona on Wednesday. Their start to Premiership life with few additions to the squad that took them there as early as March had shown them to be far from dummies at the higher level. Steve Coppell, newly manager of the month, warned they would not be going for damage limitation against the champions. In the end it was Chelsea who were weighing up the damage.
To lose one goalkeeper is unfortunate. To lose two before meeting their Spanish nemesis might be seen as calamitous. Jose Mourinho would have none of it. "I do not care about football. I do not care about Barcelona. I care about my friends."
Petr Cech and his replacement, Carlo Cudicini, were unconscious in hospital so this was a moment of proper perspective from the manager. Besides, Henrique Hilario, his third choice, has played in the Champions League for him with Porto.
Cech was hit on the temple by Stephen Hunt's knee in the first 30 seconds. Cudicini was knocked cold in a mid-air collision with Ibrahima Sonko in injury-time. Neither Reading player was booked, though the challenges were deemed fouls. Who said goalkeepers are a protected species? Mike Riley, well positioned, seemed to get each judgment right, as he did the sending off of Mikel John Obi and Andre Bikey.
With the match down to 10 aside, Chelsea were hanging on, Reading sniffing a point to keep them within three of their opponents and preserve a 14-month unbeaten home run.
Mourinho paid tribute to Reading and Coppell: "Congratulations to Steve. He is doing brilliant work and I applaud it. His side do not try just to get a draw. They are well organised and play at high intensity."
He was sanguine about Mikel's dismissal and even Sonko's challenge on Cudicini, with both men committed and the main damage done "by the violent way in which Carlo hit the ground". But, if the manager made a snack of most issues, he made a feast of the injury to Cech.
"It is easy to see. Hunt knows what he's doing. It is an unbelievable action. Cech is lucky to be alive. He has the ball in his hands and is sliding with it as the boy comes in out of his head - no, out of his shape - and goes with his knee to the face. It is a stupid challenge, a challenge for a red card, a challenge for responsible people to look at," said Mourinho.
He saw it as worse than Michael Essien's on Dietmar Hamann last season and Michael Ballack's on Mohamed Sissoko, which kept the German, sent off by Riley, out of this match on suspension, as if those were officials' crimes against Chelsea's humanity.
Coppell defended Hunt. "There's no way Hunty went in to damage the 'keeper but he has a right to put geographical pressure on him" - a euphemism to treasure from one whose motto might be "least said, soonest mended". In losing he was pleased that "we are belonging here".
Chelsea included five of their six players nominated for Fifa world player of the year. On this display Andriy Shevchenko, if eligible, would not have been put up for Berkshire player of the month.
"Today is about upping the level of our performance to compete with the very best," Reading's captain, Graeme Murty, had said. The Ukrainian did nothing to make it difficult before giving way to Joe Cole's first tentative league appearance of the season.
Chelsea describe their away shirts as "sterling", which is a bit rich for a club run on roubles, though the dark metal-grey may signify the submachine gun that does not jam. The goal came from a Frank Lampard free-kick and double ricochet that left Ivar Ingimarsson discredited with the goal. He had earlier skimmed his own bar with a header. Between times, at the other end, Kevin Doyle hit a post with a shot on the turn after Hunt's wriggling run and jiggling footwork made the chance.
Guardian Service
