Di Matteo trying to keep mind on own job

There seemed to be a particular point when, finally, Roberto Di Matteo snapped a little. He certainly snapped back.

On being asked about Alex Ferguson’s famous mind games, the Chelsea manager had an immediate response.

“It didn’t work last season, did it?”

Although he was referring to Manchester City’s eventual title win, Di Matteo was then quizzed as to whether he ever used mind games himself. The response was just as quick.

“No... if I need to, I will. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be public.”

The irony, of course, is that Di Matteo’s initial statement could be construed as something of a psychological ploy itself. The truth, however, is that the Italian has recently been more concerned with keeping his head down rather than trying to pre-emptively play matches there.

Because, although John Terry is suspended for tomorrow’s visit of Manchester United, the pity is that such an enticing top-of-the-table clash is bringing to a head a number of off-the-field issues. All the customary recent controversies dominated yesterday’s press conference: racism, handshakes and T-shirts.

If the Chelsea manager’s on-pitch tactics have been evolving though, his approach towards such questions is now pretty well defined. Di Matteo puts up the barriers and abruptly deflects everything.

At the least, regarding the main issues, he was a little clearer yesterday.

Will Ashley Cole and Rio Ferdinand shake hands?

“I don’t think we’ll see any problems.”

The Kick It Out T-shirts? “It’s going to be an individual choice for our players.”

The diversity-promoting Rooney Rule?

“I think there should be freedom of choice.”

At one point, Di Matteo checked his watch. But, if he had his patience tested, the fact is this game will also represent the first time his team have been truly tested in the league this season too.

Because, although Chelsea are undefeated and have seven wins from eight, there are significant caveats to that record.

In the fixtures that haven’t already been forgiving, the opposition they’ve faced have illustrated flaws. Arsenal buckled; Tottenham lacked their two most important players in Gareth Bale and Mousa Dembele.

Much more telling have been Chelsea’s two big European matches so far.

In the fixtures against Juventus and Shakhtar Donetsk, they surrendered one two-goal lead, conceded another and only claimed one point. Ultimately, that came down to the uncertain midfield link between old defence and new attack finally being exposed.

Although much has been made of Chelsea’s exquisite attacking, they have yet to perfect the structure that leads up to it.

As such, it’s going to be particularly interesting to see how they cope against a Manchester United who have themselves altered the emphasis of their team this season and thereby become the Premier League’s top scorers with 21 goals so far.

Tomorrow, we’ll likely see how cohesive and convincing Chelsea really are.

To his credit though, Di Matteo did acknowledge this.

“I think, as a team, we obviously still have to improve on that. I said this a few weeks ago that we have to improve on our defensive responsibilities. It’s something we know and we need to work on.”

As regards the much-discussed move to this more attacking approach, Di Matteo did give an interesting insight on its evolution. Although it is well known that this is the style owner Roman Abramovich has long demanded, it is rare to hear a manager explicitly acknowledge that such an on-pitch change wasn’t completely his plan.

“I think that’s the club’s idea,” Di Matteo admitted. “It was everybody’s idea to try and change a little bit how we have been playing over the years.”

Another one of Abramovich’s indulgences, of course, has been Fernando Torres.

And, despite the fact United and Chelsea share an overall team approach as well as one consequence and specific problem in central midfield, this marks one significant difference between them: Ferguson’s side have four strikers who are firing; Di Matteo has one who is still not.

Despite Torres recently admitting in an interview that he went through a period of not caring whether Chelsea won or lost and this dominating another significant stretch of the press conference, Di Matteo was dismissive of any questions.

“I have no concerns about Fernando. He always works hard for the team. Whether he scores or not, he’s always contributing.

“The facts this season are different [from last]. As I said, four goals in the league, one in the cup... it’s one [goal] in two.”

Given the exact stats around this fixture, though, Chelsea may need a little more. And not just in terms of goals, in terms of the entire team.