• What They Said

Di Matteo hails single-minded Chelsea

ESPN staff
October 6, 2012
Eden Hazard was on target in Chelsea's victory © Getty Images
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Roberto Di Matteo hailed his Chelsea players for once again "blanking out" a scandal engulfing the club after watching them thrash Norwich 4-1 to storm four points clear at the top of the Premier League. "I think the results are telling us that we are able to blank things out surrounding us externally and that we could focus on what is our aim and target and job, to win football games. It's proven how professional the group is and how well they respond to it."

Canaries boss Chris Hughton, who was certain the Blues would be "right up there" in the title mix, said: "I was probably more annoyed and disappointed at half-time than I was at the end of the game because, after taking the lead, we certainly needed to be in the game for longer.

"When you come here, particularly with the quality that they have got - the offensive quality they've got now - you know it's going to be a tough ask. But, when you score so early, you need to stay in the game longer. At the moment, as a team, we're not defending well enough."

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini saw his side beat Sunderland 3-0 and told the BBC: "I think in the first half, we missed two or three chances like other games but we had a good performance. I think also in London against Fulham we did very well and against Stoke. Every game is difficult in this moment. I am happy because we got a clean sheet, scored three but also because of our performance.

"I hope that [Aleksandar] Kolarov can continue to score. I am happy with all players. You can only beat Sunderland if you play well, they have a strong squad. Mario [Balotelli] worked a lot, he had a chance, I am happy with Mario. Mario played a good game, I think he can do better."

Sunderland manager Martin O'Neill: "Eventually over the piece Man City deserved to win. When it was 1-0 we had a chance and just after the break we had an attacking threat, but overall they were much better and deserved to win the game.

"They were electric. They are fine players, champions of this country and playing big Champions League games. It was always the possibility if they got the second goal, they would cause havoc and that happened. If another 10 minutes went by they might have been a bit nervy. You just have to take it, wait for international players came back and then prepare ourselves for Newcastle."

Everton boss David Moyes on his side salvaging a 2-2 draw at Wigan: "It was a hard-earned point - we worked really hard to get back into the game. We didn't start well, but Wigan did. We kept at it and deserved to get a goal back. I thought we had another penalty shout with Nikica Jelavic in the second half which should have been given."

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez on referee Kevin Friend's decision to award a late penalty to Everton, which Leighton Baines scored: "I haven't seen again [on the television]. But it seemed from where I was that there was a slight contact. I haven't seen it well enough to comment, but It looked as though it was a penalty live.

"We managed to stop Everton being a real threat and the amount of chances we created against this Everton side showed how good we are."

Under-pressure QPR manager Mark Hughes following his side's 3-2 defeat at West Brom: "In the early part of the game we gave ourselves too much to do. We talk about the fundamentals of defending and we didn't do that. We didn't start correctly. We were slow and not dynamic. They produced two good balls and we didn't deal with that. If you go 2-0 down away from home it's nigh-on impossible to get back into it. For the vast majority of the game I thought we were in control but we need to take the defensive errors out of our game."

West Brom boss Steve Clarke: "I've got to be honest, I'm not over-surprised [with our start to the season]. I'm delighted and obviously 14 points is a great return from the first seven games. But I'm not surprised. I knew we would be competitive in all the games we played.

"We don't get carried away with ourselves because we know what our primary objective is and we're firmly focused on that at the moment. It's to ensure another season in the Premier League. That's got to be the bottom line for the majority of clubs in the league.''

Reading boss Brian McDermott saw his side throw away a two-goal lead at Swansea and said: "I don't look at it like that [waiting for the win to come], I just look at the performances. The wins will come with the performances, our belief and confidence is absolutely fine. We won the Championship last year, they know how to win games and they will do in this league."

Swansea manager Michael Laudrup claimed the Welsh outfit had been denied a legitimate spot-kick. "Who knows what would have happened if we got the penalty we should have? It should have been a penalty - obviously, it is football so you can't use your hands if you are not the goalkeeper. But the referee didn't give it and that is what can happen. It is a little difficult to say if it was a point gained or two lost - you can say both or neither.''

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