It's funny, after a few months away from the PL and much Chelsea related news, I forgot how absurd some of the coverage we receive is.

 

The press and social media acting as if West Ham were hard done by because Costa lost out on a 50/50 and didn't get a second yellow after a very soft first, and totally ignoring that Oscar should have had a peno in the first half, and that their goal only came by way of an abysmal dive by Carroll.

 

Suits me so long as it doesn't influence future refereeing of Diego. Seems like enough numpties are going to totally ignore how fresh we looked today, playing at a tempo I haven't seen us play in years, with our key players returning to form we haven't seen for 18 months.

Very satisfying start! Had to listen to the first 75 minutes on the radio before I could watch live. Went back and watched the entire game.

 

I am surprised by the few who have moaned our play tonight. I really thought we could have and should have won 4-1 or 5-1. Thought we totally bossed them in midfield most of the match.

 

It was the most aggressive I have seen us in midfield in a long time. Kante's efforts seemed to keep the pressure off the back line. Our aggressiveness was so refreshing after last year watching time and time again as the other team penetrated through balls to open players for easy opportunities.

 

Hazard looked like himself, in shape and motivated. Matic played much better than last season. Azpilicueta was everywhere at times. Even Ivanovic had an improved game.

 

I really like the idea of Batshauyi and Costa up top. Both are physical and hard to handle. Even Moses has earned a spot on this club in my opinion, but not the starting XI. Oscar still is a mystery, much like Pedro. Different type of enigma, but both are head scratchers.

 

The crowd seemed into the game and very loud on the radio broadcast. It was not as apparent on TV.

 

All in all, a nice night for Chelsea fans everywhere!

 

Come on you Chelsea!! :blue scalf:

I'm glad we picked up the 3 points, hopefully we can get a bit of a run going.

 

I thought we looked very good at closing down and pressing.Still we are a work in progress and Conte needs time. Hope we get a CB as still i think against more attacking teams we might get done for pace.

 

Funny how all media outlets are focusing on Costa, 

The Mail opens with'Diego Costa swung a right boot,more in desperation than expectation'. Just 24 hrs earlier we were told how a goal by a previously ineffective Zlaten from a similar position was sheer brilliance,showing how the media's spin can sway the readers perception. His challenge on Adrian probably should have been a yellow,he got away with that one,I have more a problem with his booking for dissent earlier.Was his questioning of a decision any worse than others seen doing similar throughout the weekend? Common sense needs to prevail with this new law,clearly weaker referees will use it as a tool to control and more so against players they may dislike. I'll be very surprised if this is the last time Costa gets booked for this offence.

others seen doing similar throughout the weekend? 

 

Same game even

After last years shenanigans our defensive starting line-up horrified me, to be honest ...

However, we deservedly won this match

I wouldn't be surprised if the FA make another case against Costa, thanks to those clueless pundits. I couldn't understand the first yellow card, was that for talking to the referee? It's funny United basically had the game gifted to them by a team in the bottle half, and they are everyone's favourite to win the title, We beat a top 8 team from last season, and was all because referee didn't send off Costa

Younger son was down at eth game and in the Matthew Harding Lower last night.

 

He loved the win. His second Chelsea home game.

 

Flew down yesterday morning from Glasgow at 7.30am, Had a great  day out, spent 'a few quid' in the Chelsea Superstore.

 

Overnight stay in London and he arrives back in Glasgow at 10.20am.this morning

Edited August 16, 20169 yr by erskblue

good overall performance apart from first 15 mins , need to make the dominance pay with more goals .

encouraging signs and  with a couple of new signings things could look good

Umm ... why the negativity so early ?  Our victory against a  strong West Ham was more deserved than the victories of either Manchester Clubs over a much weaker opposition. Do u really rate Sunderland and Bournemouth to be as good as West Ham ? Also, while it is true that we were not that creative, you have to admit that the introduction of Batshuyai and Moses did help in increasing the consistency of our attacks. We were the better team if not by that much. Also I have not seen anything from either MAnchester Clubs to see that they will be better than what they played yesterday. But, we know they will play better and we know that we too will play better. A great CB or 2 and we are title bound.

 

The way I see it, it's called match review regardless the result.. You know not everytime when we win it's all good and when we lost, it's doom and gloom, sometimes we played well but lost and sometimes we didn't play well but win...  I won't focus on those mancs because I agree they didn't look that good either..

 

It's about chelsea and conte.. 1st of all I think we all agree we didn't look creative but we did look solid.. we limited west ham to a very few shot on goals and that's positive.. But the main objective is always to create clear cut chance to score goal and I feel we didn't do enough in that departement hence the concern from some fans.. That has much to do with the tactic and the players that conte put on... It's pretty much he sacrificed creativity for that solidness..

 

You singled out the substitution as somewhat conte's brilliance but do you know how late conte made that subs? I'd say both moses & pedro did nothing of importance coming on, the former even lost quite a number of possession recklessly.. Only batshuayi had some effect but my argument is that he should have come on a lot sooner..

 

lets just face it, on another day it could have been easily a stalemate.. we didn't create a single clear cut chance at home against only west ham and costa should have been sent off before he got the chance to score that winning goal and maybe that's the so called lucky part... It's really a very small margin between lost, draw and victory in this game..

The way I see it, it's called match review regardless the result.. You know not everytime when we win it's all good and when we lost, it's doom and gloom, sometimes we played well but lost and sometimes we didn't play well but win...  I won't focus on those mancs because I agree they didn't look that good either..

 

It's about chelsea and conte.. 1st of all I think we all agree we didn't look creative but we did look solid.. we limited west ham to a very few shot on goals and that's positive.. But the main objective is always to create clear cut chance to score goal and I feel we didn't do enough in that departement hence the concern from some fans.. That has much to do with the tactic and the players that conte put on... It's pretty much he sacrificed creativity for that solidness..

 

You singled out the substitution as somewhat conte's brilliance but do you know how late conte made that subs? I'd say both moses & pedro did nothing of importance coming on, the former even lost quite a number of possession recklessly.. Only batshuayi had some effect but my argument is that he should have come on a lot sooner..

 

lets just face it, on another day it could have been easily a stalemate.. we didn't create a single clear cut chance at home against only west ham and costa should have been sent off before he got the chance to score that winning goal and maybe that's the so called lucky part... It's really a very small margin between lost, draw and victory in this game..

 

We were also giving them absolutely nothing in the game bar early moments and their goal which started from blatant Carrol dive. Our combatitive midfield was pretty good. We are still miles away from being a functional unit but the signs are good.

Our back-4 was pretty safe as well. All because of our midfield.

Edited August 16, 20169 yr by evissy

Great start to the season! Onwards and upwards ... Manure won't win the title so it might as well be us

Even in a win some are so negative we won people we won jeez coming off the back of last season this is a massive improvement. I can assure you the two so called favourites are looking at us a whole lot different now 

Priceless

Well that, was bloody brilliant. 

 

I was nervous before the game; I had a feeling that West Ham were bad opponents to face on the opening day and I thought the first game just seemed to come around a bit fast for Conte after pre-season. I was worried he wouldn't have had enough time to make an impression on the squad, and that it would essentially look like we were just picking up from last season.

 

I don't want to over do it here, but I personally thought that was the best I have seen us play in over a year. The way we won back possession so effectively with such high intensity made West Ham look incredibly uncomfortable on the ball, and this was reflected in the fact that they really struggled to string a meaningful attack together all game. Their goal was their first shot on target, and was born from rather dubious circumstances, but other than than the nervous goal mouth scramble at the end, they created next to nothing.

 

I love Conte, he seems to be an instant hit at the Bridge and I am really happy he has got his first win under his belt and now has the week to continue working with the squad with that monkey off his back. Early days of course, and their are undoubtadly still chinks in the armour, but if we continue to play like that this season then I think we will be able to really go somewhere. If we can bring in a full back and a center back along with Zouma returning then I would say we can challenge. 

 

I haven't read the negativity on here and quite frankly I can't be arsed, it will only annoy me. 

 

Great win, great performance matched with a cracking atmosphere at the Bridge with everyone going home grinning like Cheshire cats. Oh, apart from the West Ham fans getting nicked on the way back to Fulham Broadway for handbags- unlucky chaps. 

Well that, was bloody brilliant.

I was nervous before the game; I had a feeling that West Ham were bad opponents to face on the opening day and I thought the first game just seemed to come around a bit fast for Conte after pre-season. I was worried he wouldn't have had enough time to make an impression on the squad, and that it would essentially look like we were just picking up from last season.

I don't want to over do it here, but I personally thought that was the best I have seen us play in over a year. The way we won back possession so effectively with such high intensity made West Ham look incredibly uncomfortable on the ball, and this was reflected in the fact that they really struggled to string a meaningful attack together all game. Their goal was their first shot on target, and was born from rather dubious circumstances, but other than than the nervous goal mouth scramble at the end, they created next to nothing.

I love Conte, he seems to be an instant hit at the Bridge and I am really happy he has got his first win under his belt and now has the week to continue working with the squad with that monkey off his back. Early days of course, and their are undoubtadly still chinks in the armour, but if we continue to play like that this season then I think we will be able to really go somewhere. If we can bring in a full back and a center back along with Zouma returning then I would say we can challenge.

I haven't read the negativity on here and quite frankly I can't be arsed, it will only annoy me.

Great win, great performance matched with a cracking atmosphere at the Bridge with everyone going home grinning like Cheshire cats. Oh, apart from the West Ham fans getting nicked on the way back to Fulham Broadway for handbags- unlucky chaps.

Excellent post mate, couldn't have said it better.

"Any other day it could have been a stalemate". Christ, I understand the need for negativity by some posters but that was trying too hard.

The way I see it, it's called match review regardless the result.. You know not everytime when we win it's all good and when we lost, it's doom and gloom, sometimes we played well but lost and sometimes we didn't play well but win...  I won't focus on those mancs because I agree they didn't look that good either..

 

It's about chelsea and conte.. 1st of all I think we all agree we didn't look creative but we did look solid.. we limited west ham to a very few shot on goals and that's positive.. But the main objective is always to create clear cut chance to score goal and I feel we didn't do enough in that departement hence the concern from some fans.. That has much to do with the tactic and the players that conte put on... It's pretty much he sacrificed creativity for that solidness..

 

You singled out the substitution as somewhat conte's brilliance but do you know how late conte made that subs? I'd say both moses & pedro did nothing of importance coming on, the former even lost quite a number of possession recklessly.. Only batshuayi had some effect but my argument is that he should have come on a lot sooner..

 

lets just face it, on another day it could have been easily a stalemate.. we didn't create a single clear cut chance at home against only west ham and costa should have been sent off before he got the chance to score that winning goal and maybe that's the so called lucky part... It's really a very small margin between lost, draw and victory in this game..

Just enjoy the win!

 

It's Conte's first proper match as manager of Chelsea, so of course things are not going to be perfect under him instantaneously and players need some time to fully adapt to his philosophies and vice-versa Conte is still finding his feet in a new league.

 

I'm as critical of the team as the next person whenever it's warranted, but we were much better than what we dished up in the last 12 months.

Edited August 16, 20169 yr by Jezz

"Any other day it could have been a stalemate". Christ, I understand the need for negativity by some posters but that was trying too hard.

And apparently we didn't create a single chance.

And apparently we didn't create a single chance.

LOL.

 

We had 16 shots at goal, with 6 being on target but we'll stick with the false narrative that we created nothing last night.

West Ham resorted to playing deep and actually played well defensively. Hazard was marked by 3 players at times. To dominate west ham like we did shows how much we have improved. It was refreshing to see a solid midfield which west ham didn't have an answer for.

You singled out the substitution as somewhat conte's brilliance but do you know how late conte made that subs? I'd say both moses & pedro did nothing of importance coming on, the former even lost quite a number of possession recklessly.. Only batshuayi had some effect but my argument is that he should have come on a lot sooner..

 

Conte made the subs late because he had no need to change anything any earlier... Throwing on substitutes for the sake of it is pointless. 

 

We were in control of the game dominating possession and West Ham completely nullified. It's only because Andy Carroll decided to give Tom Daley a run for his money did the Spammers get themselves back into the game. 

 

Conte's first change was within a couple of minutes of the equaliser, putting on Pedro for Willian who is more direct and more direct so it was a logical change. 

 

He gave it five minutes, assessed how the side was reacting to their goal then made a double change. 

 

He changed the shape of the team from 4-3-3 to 4-24. 

 

Moses and Pedro pushed right up onto their fullbacks and pegged West Ham back into their own half but also, importantly, by staying wider than Willian and Hazard were they also stretched the West Ham back four and if you look at the winner the West Ham defence has huge gaps in it pulled out of shape by a simple lobbed ball forward. 

 

So yes, the changes were late in the game but they had an immediate impact and were a very important in us winning the game.

 

But hey, let's not let any of that get in the way of a good old whinge after ONE f**kING GAME! 

Conte made the subs late because he had no need to change anything any earlier... Throwing on substitutes for the sake of it is pointless. 

 

We were in control of the game dominating possession and West Ham completely nullified. It's only because Andy Carroll decided to give Tom Daley a run for his money did the Spammers get themselves back into the game. 

 

Conte's first change was within a couple of minutes of the equaliser, putting on Pedro for Willian who is more direct and more direct so it was a logical change. 

 

He gave it five minutes, assessed how the side was reacting to their goal then made a double change. 

 

He changed the shape of the team from 4-3-3 to 4-24. 

 

Moses and Pedro pushed right up onto their fullbacks and pegged West Ham back into their own half but also, importantly, by staying wider than Willian and Hazard were they also stretched the West Ham back four and if you look at the winner the West Ham defence has huge gaps in it pulled out of shape by a simple lobbed ball forward. 

 

So yes, the changes were late in the game but they had an immediate impact and were a very important in us winning the game.

 

But hey, let's not let any of that get in the way of a good old whinge after ONE f**kING GAME! 

Well said mate Well said

Conte made the subs late because he had no need to change anything any earlier... Throwing on substitutes for the sake of it is pointless. 

 

We were in control of the game dominating possession and West Ham completely nullified. It's only because Andy Carroll decided to give Tom Daley a run for his money did the Spammers get themselves back into the game. 

 

Conte's first change was within a couple of minutes of the equaliser, putting on Pedro for Willian who is more direct and more direct so it was a logical change. 

 

He gave it five minutes, assessed how the side was reacting to their goal then made a double change. 

 

He changed the shape of the team from 4-3-3 to 4-24. 

 

Moses and Pedro pushed right up onto their fullbacks and pegged West Ham back into their own half but also, importantly, by staying wider than Willian and Hazard were they also stretched the West Ham back four and if you look at the winner the West Ham defence has huge gaps in it pulled out of shape by a simple lobbed ball forward. 

 

So yes, the changes were late in the game but they had an immediate impact and were a very important in us winning the game.

 

But hey, let's not let any of that get in the way of a good old whinge after ONE f**kING GAME! 

 

Considering we're struggling for clear cut chances, I fail to see how we didn't need to change.. Being content with just a single goal lead that we got from the penalty spot is just inviting the equalizer and it did come, didn't it? The winning goal came from shooting from distance by a player who rarely does it and I don't think you could credit the manager that much for that..

 

Hazard was gangbanged by 3 players, a top manager should be able to find a way to exploit that..

 

As for your last statement:

 

But hey, let's not let any of that get in the way of a good old whinge!

 

haha.. You're 1 to talk.. expect a boomerang, will have plenty of chances during the course of the season with you..