With one player sent off and nine booked, those fans who came expecting a grudge match will not have left the Madejski Stadium disappointed. In reality, though, this was a healing process, of sorts. Stephen Hunt and Petr Cech embraced after the game and the Reading man even left the field clutching a Chelsea shirt as a souvenir. This hard-fought victory may also have gone some way to soothing festering resentment in the Portuguese enclave of West London.

The previous time these teams met here, two Chelsea goalkeepers finished the day in hospital, with one receiving a permanent reminder of his stay. Last night, the only casualty was local pride; Reading must have been greatly buoyed by a deserved half-time lead and will have felt crushed that Chelsea should turn it on its head in the space of five minutes at the start of the second half.

As last year, Chelsea’s slender victory owed more to grit than polish, but when the league table shows maximum return from two matches and a four-point lead over Manchester United, who is complaining?

It was Frank Lampard who got Chelsea back into the game and Didier Drogba who won it for them, a familiar combination and a potent one. Equally recognisable is the boldness of José Mourinho, who responded to a poor first half, in which Chelsea threatened only through Lampard’s corners, by making changes that placed the emphasis on attack, with Shaun Wright-Phillips employed as an unlikely right back.

Suddenly Chelsea came alive. Lampard equalised in the 47th minute, Drogba scored in the 50th and there was barely a squeak out of Reading after that, save for the sending-off of Kalifa Cissé for what Mike Dean, the referee, perceived as a stamp on Claudio Pizarro but probably was not. At their best, Chelsea’s bloody-mindedness breaks hearts and minds, and that is what it did to Reading.

There are many that will never see the beauty in Lampard, but, fortunately, Mourinho is not among them. He picks him just about every week and the logic behind this loyalty was made plain last night. While also sticking to his team duties, Lampard contrives to get into scoring positions like no other central midfield player in England and his charge into the Reading penalty area – almost to the edge of the six-yard box – changed the match.

Pizarro, a substitute, won the first header, Drogba the second, but it was Lampard who followed the loose ball to journey’s end, slipping it past Mar-cus Hahnemann, the Reading goalkeeper, to give Chelsea an equality they scarcely deserved. The winner was more a work of art. Drogba won the ball, fed Kalou, got it back and then struck a shot from 25 yards that was goalbound from the moment it left his foot.

Preceding this reversal of fortune was a superb first-half display by Reading and it would not have flattered them had the scoreline read 3-0, capped by an out-of-character mistake by Cech, which led to the goal. None of these events was expected before kick-off.

Much of the acclaim for Reading’s superiority over 45 minutes should go to Hunt. In testing circumstances, he was outstanding, creating mayhem all over the pitch, most of it of the legal kind (he was booked in the 37th minute for a foul on Paulo Ferreira). He did not even shirk when, after 15 seconds, a loose ball on the slippery surface set up the chance of a challenge on Cech that would have mirrored their fateful coming together ten months ago. Hunt took it as far as he could go, but as the ball ran into touch, so he backed off. A lesser player would not even have gone there.

At other times he was involved in Reading’s best football and some of the most bone-shuddering challenges. He even took corners in front of the hostile away end, and were it not for excellent covering work by Tal Ben Haim in the seventeenth minute, could have marked the night with a goal. His battle with Steve Sidwell, his former teammate, was particularly wholehearted and helped to give Reading a deserved lead.

Sidwell’s 29th-minute foul on Hunt afforded the break in play that Steve Coppell, the Reading manager, needed to replace the injured Michael Duberry with Andre Bikey, sent off when these teams previously met at the Madejski Stadium. He made quite an impression on this occasion, too.

Nicky Shorey launched a free kick that was won in the air by Ivar Ingima-rsson, the central defender, forcing an uncharacteristic moment of misjudgment from Cech. The giant goalkeeper launched himself at the ball, attempting to punch, and took out two of his defenders instead, under pressure from Kevin Doyle, the Reading striker. The ball ran loose to Bikey, who had the easy task of tapping it into an empty net, from three yards, if that.

There was a suspicion that Doyle had put Cech off with a raised hand but it was hard to begrudge Reading the lead. What surprised was the weakness of their reaction when Chelsea hit back. Maybe they blew themselves out with the high tempo early on. Maybe the challenge of getting a point at Old Trafford with ten men, followed by a match against the league’s most physically punishing team, was too much. The fixtures secretary cannot like Reading for next up are curmudgeonly Everton. After this, though, they represent welcome respite.

Reading (4-4-2): M Hahnemann — G Murty, M Duberry (sub: A Bikey, 29min), I Ingimarsson, N Shorey — J Oster, J Harper, K Cissé, S Hunt — K Doyle, S Long. Substitutes not used: B Gunnarsson, Seol Ki Hyeon, U De la Cruz, A Federici. Booked: Long, Cissé, Hunt, Ingimarsson. Sent off: Cissé.

Chelsea (4-4-2): P Cech — P Ferreira (sub: J O Mikel, 46), T Ben Haim, R Carvalho (sub: G Johnson, 31), A Cole — S Wright-Phillips, S Sidwell (sub: C Pizarro, 46), F Lampard, F Malouda — S Kalou, D Drogba. Substitutes not used: C Cudicini, J Cole. Booked: Carvalho, Sidwell, A Cole, Wright-Phillips, Mikel.

Referee: M Dean.