Di Matteo happy to win ugly

Interim Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo accepted his side’s scrappy display in their 1-0 Premier League win over Stoke on Saturday.

Despite Stoke having Ricardo Fuller sent off for a stamp on Branislav Ivanovic after 25 minutes at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea needed nearly 70 minutes to break the visitors down, with Didier Drogba’s cool finish providing the only goal of the game.

Di Matteo was pleased with what he saw in his second match in charge, telling reporters: “I’m happy we won, it was three points we needed. We need to focus on the positive.”

“When you play against Stoke you know it will be difficult to break them down. Given that, the sending off didn’t change much for them, they had two banks of four and defended deep.”

“Sometimes you have to win like this to get three points. It’s not always going to be easy or pretty – sometimes you have to win scrappy.”

“Today was important for us to win. We needed to move forward and achieve our targets and keep it simple. That’s what the most important aspect was for us.”

The assist for Drogba’s 100th Premier League goal was provided by Juan Mata, who only entered the game as a substitute late in the first half.

Di Matteo denied he was resting the Spaniard to prioritise Tuesday’s crucial Champions League tie against Napoli, which Chelsea trail 3-1 after the first leg.

“That’s where I played him Tuesday (against Birmingham) and today, he’s very influential there,” the 41-year-old said of his use of Mata behind the central striker.

“I thought it was going to be physical, as it always is against Stoke. I wanted to start with a physical team, that was the idea. I wasn’t thinking about Napoli.”

“It’s a question of picking a team for a single game. Next game I will see what I think we need, then make decisions.”

“I’m focused on getting the team in the right frame of mind to win the next game. I have 25 players, everybody is fit which is great for the club.”

Stoke boss Tony Pulis labelled Fuller’s moment of madness as ‘unacceptable’ and was disappointed that the Jamaican ruined his first league start in over a year.

“I’ve just watched it on the TV and it’s a ridiculous reaction,” Pulis told reporters.

“He (Fuller) has been at this club for six years now and he’s been fantastic. But he is prone to react sometimes like that.”

“It is unacceptable. He’s a great lad and I’ve got a lot of time for him. He was the first one to apologise when we were all in the dressing room.”

“I’ll speak to him on Monday before I speak to anyone else. That it was his first league start in a long time makes it doubly disappointing.”