Chelsea leave it late to defeat Reading

Torres appeared to be a great distance in front of play when he completed his side's comeback from 2-1 down in an early-season thriller but his finish was allowed to stand by Lee Mason and his assistants.

It was harsh on Reading, who brilliantly battled back from Frank Lampard's penalty to lead at half-time through Pavel Pogrebnyak and Danny Guthrie.

Guthrie's goal came courtesy of a Petr Cech howler and opposite number Adam Federici had a nightmare of his own - his second in five days - in conceding Gary Cahill's equaliser.

Branislav Ivanovic scored into an empty net in the final minute of stoppage-time after Federici bombed forward in search of a draw.

The victory put Chelsea top of the table for the first time since November 2010, a fact pointed out by manager Roberto Di Matteo ahead of a fixture brought forward due to the European champions' involvement in the UEFA Super Cup.

Afterwards Reading boss Brian McDermott confirmed he confronted the assistant referee for allowing Torres' goal to stand.

Admitting he had made a beeline for the assistant who kept his flag down after the final whistle, a "gutted" McDermott said: "He (Torres) was offside and it was not a good night for him (the assistant).

"It's not been a good night for me, either. I just said to him he'd got it wrong.

"My gut feeling was that it was offside, and it was clearly offside. Unfortunate for him.

"He said he'd have a look at it. He can have a look at it. That's life."

Di Matteo said he had yet to see Torres' goal.

"I looked at the linesman straight away and he gave it straight away, so I can't comment. We are very pleased with six points after two games.

"I was very happy with the team performance for long periods of the game.

"We lost a bit our composure after Reading scored the equaliser and second goal, but we'd started off very well, with some great football, and finished off very strongly."