Wigan 0-2 Chelsea: Hazard Warning

It was only £20 to get in the DW yesterday but I am sure the near 20,000 crowd who witnessed the sublime, ney brilliant turn and flick by Eden Hazard to set Branislav Ivanovic on his way to score Chelsea’s first on two minutes, would have gladly have paid much much more. I know I would.

£20 for a Premiership game!! Wigan and their superb hospitality really put the rest of the Premier League to shame.

Hazard was at it again before ten minutes ticked away. He burst into Wigan’s area and was bulldozed over by Ramis to earn Chelsea a penalty, which Super Frank, coolly and calmly slotted past Ali Al Habsi, whose first two touches of the ball were to pick it out of the net.

Hazard was sublime all afternoon which wasn’t lost on Caldwell, MacArthur and McCarthy who tried their very best to kick Hazard out of the game and the treatment of Hazard caused ref, Mike Jones to tell Wigan's captain Gary Caldwell, to tell his players to calm down.

The day started off with an early morning alarm call, far too early to hear the morning song of the birds and even earlier for the crowing cockerel breaingk the silence of the early morning dawn.

All this to satisfy the whims of an Australian media mogul whose TV company decided to schedule the game for a 1.30 kick-off.

Still there were consolations for such an early start.

No toll at the tunnel, hardly any traffic on the motorways and plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast watching the morning repeat of Match of the Day and by 11am, I was filling up the car for the return journey home.

The game, despite the early scoreline, wasn’t all plain sailing for Chelsea.

Wigan had their chances.

Chelsea target Moses fizzed one in that had Cech at full-stretch to palm the ball around the post and in the second-half Gomez smacked a free header past Cech’s right hand post and then inexplicably attempted an overhead kick which looked right beneath the bar high and wide.

There were times when Chelsea’s luck continued on from last season, but the day belonged to Hazard, already described as the bargain buy of the season and Super Frank said after the game, “Eden was brilliant.”

Wigan: Al Habsi, Alcaraz, Caldwell (c), Ramis, Boyce, McCarthy, McArthur (Watson 80), Figueroa, Moses, Di Santo (Krone 66), Maloney (Gomez 48)

Booked: Caldwell 10, McArthur 56

Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry (c), Cole, Mikel, Lampard, Mata (Meireles 82), Hazard (Oscar 64), Betrand, Torres

Goals: Ivanovic 2, Lampard 6 (pen)

Booked: Luiz 34, Lampard 79

2012 FA CUP WINNERS, 2012 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNERS

NEXT UP: Reading (H), Wednesday 22/8/2012, K.O. 7.45pm

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