Carlo Ancelotti has warned not to expect high scores every week and was happy with his side's 2-0 win over a defensive Stoke today.

The Italian admitted it wasn't the Blues' best performance, especially as it came off the back of consecutive 6-0 wins, and he cited a slow tempo as the reason we only netted twice, a respectful score in any Premier League game.

'I am happy when we are able to do our best,' said Ancelotti. 'Today was not our best performance; there was a lot of difficulty in the game.

'We didn't have a high tempo in the game and we conceded a lot of throw-ins so the tempo couldn't get high.

'But I am happy because we won, we didn't concede a goal, we maintained a clean sheet and we maintained the top of the table.'

Stoke played plenty of defensive football, with Chelsea attacking the visitors' box for most of the first-half.

Chelsea produced plenty of chances on goal during the first period but failed to prosper until Florent Malouda struck a John Terry ball over Sorensen and into the net.

'The first-half was the better performance,' added Ancelotti. 'We had opportunities to score more than once.

'The second-half was more difficult but this can happen. We worked very hard this week because it is the week before the international break and then the start of the Champions League.

'So the players had a very tough week and they were not so sharp.'

Stoke manager Tony Pulis was happy with his side's performance: 'They worked their socks off and we had our moments,' he said.

'If Whelan's shot had gone in it would have been an interesting final 18 minutes.

'We haven't played too bad this season, we played really well against Tottenham but overall Chelsea were the better team. At the end of the day they scored and deserved to win.'

There was one man who stood out for Ancelotti as he spoke after the game, our captain John Terry, who kept Stoke striker Kenwyne Jones out of the game.

'Terry had a fantastic match today and his performance was very good,' said the Chelsea manager.