Roberto di Matteo admitted his Chelsea side remains a work in progress after they needed a controversial Fernando Torres goal to secure victory over newly-promoted Reading.

Di Matteo was once again impressed by the performance of Eden Hazard – signed this summer for £32 million from Lille.

And he believes the Belgian is already striking up an effective partnership with fellow playmaker Juan Mata after just two games of the new Premier League season.

Hazard provided two more assists in the 4-2 defeat of Reading on Wednesday night to add to the two he provided at Wigan.

That has helped the Blues claim maximum points from their opening two games – but the way they allowed Reading back into the game highlighted the defensive work that still needs to be done as Di Matteo attempts to introduce Hazard, Oscar and Marko Marin into his side.

The Chelsea manager said: “The balance was always going to be the key.

“It’s all great and everyone wants to see a lot of flair play, but to win games you need a good balance to it. That’s going to be the challenge.

“I would like to think we are defensively quite good. We had a clean sheet on the first day.

“Reading did well to score, but we’ve scored six goals in two games. We’ll have to try and be solid. That’s how you win more games. We’ll certainly look at that.”

And he added: “There was some good football, a lot of rotation between our players, and we attacked in numbers, created several chances as well, and the players were enjoying themselves.

“Hazard had an impact in our team, but I think him and Juan Mata linked up very well. He’s finding his feet very quickly, so that is pleasing for us.”

Hazard won the penalty that allowed Frank Lampard to open the scoring but Reading replied through Pavel Pogrebnyak and Danny Guthrie before Gary Cahill brought Chelsea back level.

Then Torres scored from an offside position nine minutes from time and Branislav Ivanovic made it four when Reading keeper Adam Federici went up for a late header.

Reading manager Brian McDermott said: “I’m gutted the linesman’s got that decision wrong.

“He was offside and it was not a good night for him. It’s not been a good night for me, either.

“My gut feeling was that Torres’s goal should not have been given... it was clearly offside.

“Unfortunately for the linesman. He said he’d have a look at it. He can have a look at it. That’s life.

“People make mistakes, and he’s made a mistake against us.

“It’s just a shame it was for such a crucial goal because we would definitely have got a point. I’m really disappointed for the players.”