“But in this situation I must be honest I think that the referee took the right decision”.
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Conte, 47, has worked his new squad hard in the run-up to the season, with double training sessions. I missed a couple of penalties last season and Oscar asked me before if he could shoot but I said, “No, it’s my turn”. “We have been working for only one month”. We did very well and we played 90 minutes like tigers. He has great ability and is very important in this team.
Goalscorer James Collins – dubbed the “ginger Pele” by the noisy West Ham crowd – told the club’s website: “It was tough”.
The contest had started at a furious pace, although first-night nerves sometimes got in the way of quality football.
The 25-year-old struggled for form both before and after Jose Mourinho’s December sacking, as Chelsea slumped to a 10th-place finish last term.
Conte’s Blues side will make the short trip to London rivals Watford in their next Premier League game on Saturday afternoon. We did not start off or finish well a year ago.
In the second half Bilic’s Hammers side found it tough to string more than two passes together.
However, Bilic believes that Costa should have seen the red card.
“Diego tried to put pressure on Adrian and before the contact, he stopped”, Conte said, in comments that seemed to be contradicted by the evidence of television replays.
“When a coach takes a decision there is always a reason but I prefer to keep it for me”, Conte said, as noted by ESPN FC.
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Normally it’s West Ham manager Slaven Bilic who is the most animated and agitated on the touchline but in a game in which his side barely made a mark, he was demoted to a few gesticulations and substitutions as new £20million signing Andre Ayew limped off with a worrying thigh injury.
