But Chelsea were awarded a penalty within a minute of the start of the second half as Michail Antonio bundled into the back of Cesar Azpilicueta. There was Nemanja Matić patrolling the midfield and providing a few lovely passes.
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Pundit Jamie Carragher said: “This is a straight red card, that challenge there, it’s typical Costa, it happens too often”.
Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante, signed from last season’s surprise champions Leicester City, got an early yellow card for bringing down striker Andy Carroll in the fourth minute.
But the Brazil-born Spain global was fortunate to be on the pitch, having earlier caught West Ham goalkeeper Adrian with a late challenge after he had already received a yellow card.
West Ham certainly lacked a clarity of attacking intent in Payet’s absence for the opening hour on Monday, but Bilic believes the 29-year-old still needs time to hit top speed after his Euro2016 exploits with France.
Eden Hazard, booed by fans previous year for failing to produce anything like his best form, got off the mark early in the second half by converting a penalty after defender Cesar Azpilicueta was fouled by Michail Antonio. “In my opinion I think the referee took the right decision”. Both of them know where the back of the goal is and have showcased the ability to bring into other attackers into play and could very well complement each other’s skill sets.
West Ham lost their Premier League opener to a late goal from Diego Costa. I saw the tackle once again.
“I don’t think it was reckless, definitely not”. It was not a deliberate one.
“Unfortunately this was the 10th time, but I’m more interested in talking about the game than Diego Costa. But, really, I’m only disappointed with the way the goals were conceded”.
“We are expecting big things from them, not just to be squad players”. Apart from the first 15 minutes until we equalised, they were much better than us.
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But Costa was able to steer the ball past Hammers goalkeeper Adrian from outside the box in the 89th to give the home team the result it deserved. Now we are looking forward to the future.
