Chelsea vs. Stoke City, Premier League: Half-time report

A fairly even match so far, with both sides creating a couple decent chances and both sides making several silly errors.  Chelsea, especially seemed to be specializing in giving the ball away with underhit passes and poor touches on check-tos.  We eventually kicked that habit, but are sorely missing a Fabregas to help distribute the ball.  Also missing is a Diego Costa up front; young Bertrand Traoré's not having much success in his first start at center forward unfortunately.

AND THEN HE PULLS THAT MAGNIFICENT GOAL OFF.  Sometimes, all it takes is one moment of brilliance.  Elsewhere, Eden Hazard looks up for it (minus the shooting); Oscar doesn't quite but at least he is shooting; Willian's back to doing a lot of transition work with Fabregas rested.

On the flip side, our midfield looks weak once again (paging Nemanja Matic; Nemanja Matic to the 2015-16 season please!) and we've gotten lucky that Mame Biram Diouf is a terrible finisher.  He probably should have two goals off of two excellent Stoke counters.  Not exactly confidence-inspiring, our defense at the moment.

But, it's 1-0 to the good guys.  And in the end, that's all that matters.  45 minutes to go to see this out, though I'd be surprised if there weren't more goals.