Graphic: Bill Edgar's tactical analysis

“Clean sheet, three points, that’s what’s important,” Avram Grant said. Winning with style? Sorry, call back later.

Chelsea were entertaining yesterday, but for neutrals - not quite what their watching owner, Roman Abramovich, would have hoped for. The scoreline was the traditional symbol of dour, grinding efficiency, but that would be a misrepresentation of this match. Chelsea performed with an insecurity that was not redolent of the José Mourinho years. They did not concede but they gave up plenty of chances and possession.

For much of the game it was hard to tell which team had just scraped a 1-0 victory over Rabotniki Kometal and which had beaten Valencia in Spain. Still, Grant, the first-team coach, could be forgiven for prioritising the result. This was Chelsea’s first Barclays Premier League win in five matches, their first under Grant’s management. “It will take time, I think we need to develop from month to month, but sometimes you need the points, especially when you play away after a long time without a win,” Grant said. “The target for the long and short term is to build a style of our own as a team and play good football. The base before was good, but this season we didn’t play well.”

Despite Didier Drogba being suspended, Andriy Shevchenko was left on the bench until the final 15 minutes. When Salomon Kalou, the goalscorer, went off with a hamstring injury at half-time, Grant turned to Claudio Pizarro.

Not favouring Abramovich’s favourite player – more evidence, perhaps, that Grant is not the owner’s puppet. “When I got the job, nobody said to me that a friend of Peter Kenyon [the chief executive] needs to play,” Grant said, by way of example. “I need to take decisions that are for the good of Chelsea. They pay me to be in charge, I have to take the decisions, for the present and the future, to take the team forward. We have a long season, every player has good times and bad times. Sheva is trying hard, he’s a great player, I’m sure he will be good for Chelsea.”

Grant is eager to portray himself as tough enough for the challenge of winning with flair, even though most of his statements are coated with a calculated blandness, as if to contrast himself with his predecessor.

“I don’t want to live in football without pressure. I was all my life in big clubs in my country, you’re always under pressure to achieve the best, this is good pressure,” he said. “Especially if we make a process to change the game of Chelsea a little bit. It’s a big responsibility but I like it.”

The most determined defensive performance of the day came from Sammy Lee, the Bolton manager, when pressed on why neither his captain, Kevin Nolan, nor his coach, Gary Speed, had even made the substitutes’ bench. “I pick the side that I think will do the best for any given game,” Lee said. Several times.

If that was evasive, another comment by Lee – “We’ve shown desire and commitment but made a mistake and got punished for it” – hit the mark. Bolton were undone when Kalou beat Abdoulaye Meïté and the onrushing Jussi Jaaskelainen to a flick-on, knocked the ball past both and – surprisingly, given their relative size – outmuscled Meïté and scored the first league goal under Grant.

Bolton might have had a penalty in the same period when Steve Sidwell appeared to handle in the area. Stelios Giannakopoulos, a substitute, hit the bar with a header in the 90th minute, while El-Hadji Diouf, Kevin Davies and Nicolas Anelka would probably have proved too much for a defence without the solid Ricardo Carvalho.

Frank Lampard, back from injury, looked fine, while John Terry’s performance was good news for England, if not for referees. His ability to argue with officials is evidently not impeded by his mask.

Bolton Wanderers 0

(4-1-2-3): J Jaaskelainen 8 – J O’Br-ien 7 (sub: S Giannakopoulos, 85min), A O’Brien 7, A Meïté 6, R Gardner 7 – I Campo 8 – G McCann 7, D Guthrie 6 – K Davies 8, N Anelka 7, E-H Diouf 8 (sub: C Wilhelmsson, 67, 6).Substitutes not used:A Al Habsi, G Cid, D Braaten. Booked: Diouf, Davies, McCann, Jaaskelainen. Next: Arsenal (a).

Chelsea 1 Kalou 41

(4-1-2-2-1): P Cech 8 – J Belletti 7, R Carvalho 7, J Terry 7, A Cole 6 – C Makelele 6 – S Sidwell 6, F Lampard 7 – J Cole 6 (sub: P Ferreira, 85), F Malouda 5 (sub: A Shevchenko, 74) – S Kalou 6 (sub: C Pizarro, 46 6).Substitutes not used:C Cudicini, T Ben Haim. Booked: Carvalho. Next: Middlesbrough (a).

Referee A Wiley

Attendance 20,059