Chelsea‘s Diego Costa celebrates after scoring during the English Premier League soccer match between Chelsea and West Ham at Stamford Bridge stadium in London, Monday, Aug. 15, 2016.
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And the Belgian admitted he was relieved to open his account for the season so early on.
His corner ten minutes later created some confusion in the Chelsea box and defender James Collins was on hand to drill the ball past Thibaut Courtois and level the scores.
“These will stay as good memories but now a new season starts, a good challenge, and football moves on very quickly”.
Conte also leapt to Diego Costa’s defence when it was suggested the forward should not have been on the pitch to net the winning goal.
West Ham host Bournemouth on Sunday in front of the cameras – the Cherries lost 3-1 to Manchester United in Mourinho’s first game. We did very well and we played 90 minutes like tigers.
Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante left Premier League champions Leicester City in order to work with Antonio Conte.
“I am aware of [the new dissent law] now”, said Costa, who was booked 11 times and sent off once for Chelsea last season. Conte added. “After a bad season, 10th place was no good for the players, confidence was low and the fans weren’t happy with this situation”.
In his post-match comments, the Italian echoed man-of-the-match Hazard’s sentiments but promised there was a lot more to come from his star man and Chelsea as the season went on. There was great intensity and positioning.
“We are happy with his performance but I’m happy with the performance of all the players”.
“It was very important to get off to a good start”. I took this decision – but the next game, we don’t know.
“But I feel it has been only good for the body and got us in the condition you have to be in to play in the Premier League, especially now it is getting more and more physical and demanding”.
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“Now I took this decision but the next game I can change or not”.
