Bloody Stoke. Bloody ref. Still at least we're winning, let's hope we kill them off in the 2nd half.

Yes, but I think we can count on Costa being extra "motivated" in the 2nd half.

True, but if I was a manager, I'd want my hard men to save that for where it counts. Bardsley had a go at Hazard up near our corner flag, then lashed out again when the ball was clearly going out of play. If you're going to risk picking up a card, do it when it's going to make a difference.

Clear pen missed, ref looking straight at it

Comon he had three chelsea players to pass to and manages to find the ref, crap pass sod all to do with the ref

Costa's enjoying himself, loves a scrap.

We seem to casual bring Drog on.

I would like to see Schurrle, someone to run at them with pace. Willian has put in a good shift, but he's looking a bit tired.

We can relax a bit now, but we certainly needed that one.

Great, a rake down the Achilles for hazard. Stoke really are awful

Huge win for Chelsea, maintain their lead and now can focus on the next two against West Ham and Southampton. Thank god most of Chelsea's big games are at home.

Perfect example of how far we have come this season,

The work is nowhere near being done, Last season Jose did not the the piece's or the system to get a result, The season we have the piece's (and A system) to get the result. He still needs to do some work with the players (and the players need to improve) but the work done this season to undo the last few seasons of mismanagement has been very promising,

Not sure even in Jose's first spell in charge of the club have I been so confident that we are going in the right direction

Tough fixture, but we came through it with a very creditable win. Good stuff.

A professional display from Chelsea. Some terrible challenges on Hazard and if that's all opposition players can do to a world class player, then it's going to be decades before England are going to win a world cup again. Some of the Stoke players looked more like thugs than professional footballers. Send them off, and keep on sending them off until clubs like Stoke start to invest in skill as opposed to brute force.

Matic was fantastic again and Chelsea as a unit and a team were very good. Two poor misses from Costa, and why not give Remy a run? He's quicker, and Costa can always be brought on from the bench.

Nice to see Terry get his 60th goal on his 650th appearance. Bring on the 70th goal in over 700 appearances!

Schurrle had a quick, direct impact when he came on, and it was nice to see Mourhino go for the second and third goal as opposed to sitting back. Long may it continue.

Big win to set the tone for a tough week. Home against West Ham on Friday and then @ Southhampton on Sunday.

Great win but not a great match.
Matic is just the best just love this guy.

Willian was awful today

Yes, it wasn't pretty but we really needed those 3 points. No respite for a while yet, some difficult fixtures coming up.

But Costa brings something just as vital as goals (and something I don't think Remy could offer), His off the ball runs are amazing and that has been the hallmark of his career and something we really have needed, Its what Rooney could have offered us when we was after him. He drags players all around the pitch and with the number of players we have who have a goal in them its a massive thing to have.

Costa held the ball up really well, everything stuck.

Against those thugs too!

It wasn't his best game, but he did come in for some rough treatment. I thought the whole team can hold their heads up after winning a difficult game.

Good all round performance. Got a bit worried towards the end that we were running out of gas but thankfully Cesc came up trumps.
Really hope he uses the squad over the next few games.

I think we can beat West Ham at home, Sunderland will be the tricky game on the road on short rest.

To be honest, I haven't been impressed with Willian for some time now. I know he offers great defensive displays due to his excellent stamina, but his contribution to the final third has been shocking lately. I've given up on the fact that Willian will be a goal scorer; he isn't that type of player and I've come to accept that. I know Mou has asked him to take more shots (I think it was 3 per game or something along those lines), but it doesn't help when his shots are so damn weak! Seriously...annoying as hell - it's criminal how he doesn't put any power through his shots. So if he doesn't offer goals, naturally, I'd expect him to assist more. But he doesn't do that well either. Just looking at the PL figures so far:

Oscar has 3 goals and 5 assists
Hazard has 6 goals and 3 assists
Willian has 1 goal and 1 assist (in 16 appearances)

To put Willian's performance into further context, Ramires in 8 appearances has 1 goal and 3 assists!

Willian just isn't an effective attacking player. He has pace but he never uses it to beat his man like Hazard does (on a side note, I thought Hazard was fantastic yesterday...i could spend all day talking about him haha, we're so lucky to have him). Just looking at yesterday's game alone, Hazard made 4 key passes and Willian made 0. Even Schurrle, with his limited appearance made 1 key pass. Ok, Willian can dribble but Hazard blows him out of the water in that department (Hazard made 5 dribbles yesterday, Schurrle 2 and Willian 1). Willian doesn't have 1 attribute which sets him apart from any of our AM. The only reason why he gets to start is because of our high pressing game but if the opportunity ever arrives that we can get a better RW I wouldn't be against the idea.

Well, Willian has never been a prolific goalscorer, he never got into double figures in six seasons with Shakhtar. I have always looked on him as a step-up in class from Ramires. Both have tremendous energy, Ramires is stronger and a better ball-winner, but Willian is more creative.
It's difficult to argue with your stats, but apart from a couple of recent average performances, I think he's had a pretty successful season so far. He's never going to be another Hazard, and £32m was probably £10m more than his real market value.
But I guess it depends on what you expect from a player in a game. Schurrle gives you more chance of a goal, Ramires is a better defensive player. With Willian you get a player who combines something of both, and who is (usually) more creative than either over 90 minutes.