Match Report Chelsea 2 Bolton Wanderers 1

Match Report – Chelsea 2-1 Bolton Wanderers

Chelsea

Cech, Filipe Luis, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Zouma, Mike, Oscar, Schürrle, Salah (Hazard - 80' ), Aké (Matic - 91' ), Remy (Drogba - 72' )

Bolton Wanderers

Lonergan, Mills, Moxey, Dervite, Herd, Danns (Mason - 83' ), Pratley, Kamara, Feeney (Spearing - 68'), Davies (Lee Chung-yong - 52'), Beckford

A Chelsea team cobbled together with bit-part players edged past a gritty Bolton side thanks to a second half goal by playmaker Oscar.

Gary Cahill and Cesar Azpilicueta were the only players who played in Chelsea’s weekend draw at Etihad. Jose Mourinho decided to give a chance to all his squad players resting his key players in the process to keep them fresh for weekend as well as the following Champions League games in midweek.

Chelsea were always on the front foot as they were hardly troubled by a struggling Bolton side. Chelsea opened their scoring through Kurt Zouma who fired in a bullet shot home from just inside the penalty box. Bolton made a hash of the clearance which saw them trail midway through first half.

Bolton somehow equalized within six minutes after conceding through a header by Matt Mills. Bolton tried to capitalize on the only possible weakness in Chelsea’s lineup. They were nervy while defending set pieces.

If not for some wasteful finishing by Andre Schurrle, Chelsea would have run away with the game by margin of 3-4 goals. The Londoners somehow were saved the blushes by Oscar’s low drive restoring the status quo in the opening 10 minutes of the second half. Chelsea had 28 shots on goal compared to Bolton’s 3, this shows how Chelsea made heavy weather of their Capital One Cup match.

Bolton continued to harass the home side via set pieces. This prompted the Chelsea think tank to bring on their physical players in Drogba and Matic. While Eden Hazard was brought on to replace pace and creativity of Mohamed Salah late in the game.