West Ham 2-1

Independent:
Chelsea 2 West Ham United 1

Diego Costa strikes late to hand Antonio Conte winning start
The Blues were not at their best but managed to grind out a result against Slaven Bilic's men nonetheless

Jack Pitt-Brooke Stamford Bridge

It was in the last minute of this high-octane low-quality match that Chelsea finally won it. They had just gifted their lead away to West Ham United’s first chance of the match, after long balls to Andy Carroll finally paid off. Chelsea could have been reduced to nine men with first Diego Costa and then N’Golo Kante let off with obvious yellow card offences having each already been booked. Costa, then, with seconds of normal time left, beat Adrian from distance. Welcome to the Premier League Antonio Conte.

As a crash-course in English football this was perfect for Chelsea’s new coach. His whole managerial career has taken place in Italy and with the Italian national team. This was the opposite of that careful thoughtful tactical football. It was messy, chaotic and imprecise, played out under lights in a derby atmosphere. And it was Chelsea, deservedly, who won it at the end.

Conte ran off around the technical area when Costa won the game. On the final whistle he strode onto the pitch to bear-hug every one of his players. At this stage of the season performances often matter more than results, but Chelsea is a club that needs to remember how to win again. Conte wants to teach the players his idea of football, but that will take time. For now he just needs to make them believe in him.

Eventually Conte wants his Chelsea team to play aggressive, direct, athletic football, in his favoured 4-2-4 system. Chelsea are nowhere near being able to do that yet, not least because they have not signed enough players. Kante was the only change here from the Chelsea team that drew 2-2 with Swansea City on opening weekend last summer, when Jose Mourinho complained about his team doctor and everything started to unravel.

Here Kante was Chelsea’s best player, the man who looked most at ease with the demands Conte has made. Anchoring midfield in a 4-3-3, he missed his first tackle, on Andy Carroll, but after then won almost everything else. Oscar, Willian and Diego Costa tried to play at the same tempo too, but in the first half Chelsea struggled to create chances. It will take time to find the right balance between intensity and imagination, and here they did have it right.

Chelsea did always have men bursting into the box, but did not always have enough quality. Branislav Ivanovic forced a save from Adrian, Oscar went down in the box unrewarded before Eden Hazard, cutting in from the left, whistled a shot just wide of the far post.

But if Chelsea were anxious that they had missed their first-half chance then they need not have been. Because four minutes into the second half West Ham gifted them the easiest goal they will score this season. Michail Antonio skewed a clearance to Cesar Azpilcueta then fouled him as he ran into the box. Hazard converted the penalty and Bilic dragged off a humiliated Antonio, who trudged straight down the tunnel. Bilic could have avoided the problem by playing a specialist right-back from the start.

This was when Chelsea should have stepped it up but, still finding their way as a team, they let West Ham back into the game. With Andre Ayew limping out of his debut, Dimitri Payet on the bench and Manuel Lanzini at the Olympics, this was a West Ham team shorn of all their creative quality. Their only plan was long balls to Andy Carroll and they could barely even pick him out for the first hour.
But when they eventually started to find Carroll, with 13 minutes left, he won them a free-kick.

Payet, finally on, won the corner. And it fell to James Collins on the edge of the box, who somehow found the top corner of the net. It was West Ham’s first chance, but a fair punishment for a Chelsea side who had taken their eyes off what they were meant to be doing.

Conte had to throw everything at West Ham to get back into the game, and introduced Pedro, Victor Moses and new signing Michy Batshuayi from the bench. West Ham gifted them possession and Matic picked out Batshuayi with a long ball. He won the flick on and it fell to Costa, 20 yards from goal, with neithr West Ham centre-back coming out to challenge. Costa looked up, gathered himself, and found the bottom corner.

Costa was lucky to be on the pitch, having got away with an earlier foul on Adrian, having already been booked, that would earn a red card more often than a yellow. Kante, too, could have gone for a bad trip on Payet in the middle of the pitch. But both survived and Chelsea went on to win it. Later in the Conte era they will play better than this, and they will need to. But there are worse ways to start.

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Guardian:

Chelsea’s Diego Costa sinks West Ham to give Antonio Conte debut victory
Dominic Fifield at Stamford Bridge

Antonio Conte has his lift-off and, in the afterglow of a restorative victory, Chelsea feel like a club revived. The 10th permanent managerial appointment of Roman Abramovich’s ownership ended this ferocious derby leaping in delight on the touchline, high-fiving the fans then burying himself in the front row of supporters in the east stand, as this arena erupted all around to celebrate the winner. After all last season’s traumas, the locals will ignore the inevitable controversy which accompanied success. One game in and already Conte is adored.

It was Diego Costa, inevitably, whose contribution had Slaven Bilic and his crestfallen West Ham players enraged. The Spain forward had already been booked for berating the referee, Anthony Taylor, following the first-half non-award of a penalty when, midway through the second period, he attempted to close down Adrián, slid in and planted his left foot into the inside of the goalkeeper’s right calf. The official took his time before determining no second caution would be flashed, let alone the red card for which plenty of the visitors were calling. There was an inevitability thereafter about where this dramatic occasion would veer.

The game had entered its final minute, West Ham comfortable in the parity earned by James Collins’s fine finish, when possession was lost wastefully, the substitute Michy Batshuayi flicked on a punt forward and Costa collected just outside the penalty area. Both Collins and Winston Reid hesitated, allowing the striker time to take aim with the low shot fizzing through the clutter of centre-halves and into the far corner of Adrián’s net. The visitors sank to their knees in deflation, Bilic infuriated on the sidelines. “The winning start was vital,” said John Terry. “That is the fight and the commitment we want. We dug in for a London derby. That is great for the management.”

They have missed evenings like this in these parts. Chelsea had beaten only five teams in the Premier League here last season, surrendering to as many visitors en route, to offer some context to Conte’s immediate impact even with virtually identical personnel. N’Golo Kanté for Cesc Fàbregas was his only alteration to the side, then champions, who had begun the opening game of the last campaign under José Mourinho.

Yet Eden Hazard, who was to thump home the first goal of the Conte era from the penalty spot, was unrecognisable from the player who had taken over eight months to open his account last season. A “great talent” with a “fantastic attitude” was the Italian’s assessment. Just as significant was the fact that Costa, for all the trademark accompanying snarl, has his timing back.

Chelsea merited this success, even if it was squeezed out late and with the visitors, disrupted by the thigh injury which forced their debutant, André Ayew, from the fray, justifiably bemoaning the leniency of the officialdom. In truth, Bilic’s team had flattered to deceive during a bright opening quarter, the visitors lacking Dimitri Payet’s invention until the latter stages when that early urgency had long since been eclipsed and, eventually, overrun. Bilic was brutally honest in his post-match assessment. “Chelsea were much more aggressive, winning balls and second balls,” he said, “and their front four were on fire.”

Oscar argued that his early penalty appeal was justified, for all that he appeared to dangle his leg to seek out contact from Reid’s challenge. Branislav Ivanovic was denied and Hazard curled just wide, before West Ham eventually self-destructed. Michail Antonio, still a makeshift full-back despite the occasional successes he enjoyed in defence last year, collected on the edge of the area early in the second half and attempted to dribble away from danger, merely presenting the ball to César Azpilicueta in the process. The challenge which followed inside the box was panicked and born of desperation. Hazard converted with Conte’s celebrations as manic as those in the stands. Antonio was swiftly withdrawn.

“I liked the great intensity of my players,” said Conte. “We know we can improve through work but, today, it was very important to start with a victory. When a new manager arrives in a new club, he tries to bring with him his philosophy of football. We are working only one month together but tonight I saw the right intensity. It’s important to bring something different from last season.” This was a Chelsea side reminded of its underlying qualities.

It should have been more comfortable thereafter, the home side flooding forward with greater structure to their lineup and more fluency to their attacks, only for Adrián’s excellence to keep them at bay. But, while the lead was slender, the propensity to crack remained. Bilic was eventually forced to introduce Payet, the Frenchman’s fitness not quite up to scratch after his exertions at Euro 2016, and it was from his corner that West Ham equalised. Enner Valencia’s shot was blocked by Azpilicueta and Collins was quickest to react inside the box.

For 12 minutes thereafter Chelsea wondered if last year’s frailties might be exposed again. Then Costa, reprieved from his challenge, claimed the spoils and Conte had his springboard.

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Telegraph:

Chelsea 2 West Ham 1: Costa grabs late winner after avoiding controversial second booking
Jason Burt, chief football correspondent, stamford bridge 

Antonio Conte launched himself into the crowd; Diego Costa launched himself at West Ham United goalkeeper Adrián – but avoided a red card – and Chelsea’s new season with their dervish of a new manager had lift-off.

Jürgen Klopp’s “heavy metal” football has a thrash metal rival in west London.
This was a full-blooded, raw meat London derby in which West Ham United were pinned back, battered at times, but will come away with a sense of injustice that they were eventually beaten. There were two cracker-jack managers on the touchline and this was a whizz-bang of a match.

Those technical areas will be tinderboxes this season throughout the Premier League with such huge personalities and big managers in charge and Slaven Bilic is no exception. And neither certainly is Conte who demanded the same extraordinary intensity from his players as he does from himself. There is a new, exhausting and exacting darling of Stamford Bridge.

And an old devil as well. Costa was, well, Costa. He snarled and snapped – and scored. This was not the disinterested, sulking player of the last campaign though, who craved a move back to Atlético ­Madrid, but the brooding menace of the season before, even if he brought the same baggage with him. It is in his DNA; the fuel that fires him.

Having been booked for dissent, after protesting as referee Anthony Taylor waved away Oscar’s first-half penalty appeals, he caught Adrián, in the second-half, with an ugly, high challenge that raked and marked the goalkeeper’s leg. Taylor walked over, appearing to intend to show a card before perhaps realising Costa had already been cautioned, and so the striker earned an unlikely reprieve.

West Ham were stunned and they paid the price. Inevitably it had to be Costa who exacted it in one of those cruel twists of fate. Having drawn level, having then pushed on themselves, the visitors were caught as one of the three substitutes Conte threw on – and the Italian certainly went for it – Michy Batshauyi headed the ball back ­infield for Costa to collect. The ­defenders backed off, fatally, and the forward drove a low shot from outside the penalty area that had Adrián grasping at air as it spun ­beyond him and inside his far post.

The disgust was evident on Bilic’s face – but more because of the concession than the identity of its claimant, even though Chelsea played on the edge throughout with another new signing, N’Golo Kanté, booked inside three minutes and walking, or rather barrelling into, a tightrope for the rest of this ­encounter.

Costa was not the only one transformed. It had seemed the story would be the return of Eden Hazard who also went missing last season, hampered by injuries and doubts, and who did not score until April. He despatched a penalty, awarded inside a minute of the second half after the hapless Michail Antonio bundled over César Azpilicueta, and was back to his exhilarating, mercurial best having shown flashes of that during Euro 2016.

It was an awful night for Antonio who was mercilessly exposed at right-back and was hooked by Bilic after being booked for the penalty challenge. He walked straight down the tunnel, blanking and blanked by his manager.

And so two players who lost their way for Chelsea – Costa and Hazard – claimed the headlines but it was a team, also, injected with energy throughout and one that looked ­fitter and leaner. And meaner. Willian was the same, busy, relentless, creative force, while Oscar was the skilful but also snapping midfield creator-and-destroyer he can be, with Kanté certainly bringing a much-needed dimension. On the bench sat Cesc Fàbregas and there was a sense that much has to change for him to re-establish himself.

West Ham knew it would be hard. Bilic has recruited well this summer but could not start with Dimitri Payet after his exertions for France – although his team were much more threatening when the midfielder did come on – and were also without the injured Manuel Lanzini and Sofiane Feghouli, and lost record signing André Ayew early on, but were a little guilty of ­attempting to send it long too often to striker Andy Carroll who has been such a scourge of Chelsea in the past.

Not so much here. No quarter was given but chances were hard to come by before Chelsea did eke out a couple in the first half with Hazard setting off on one of those slaloming runs from deep – so typical of him but absent for so long – before his curling low shot skimmed wide. Before that, Branislav Ivanovic had drawn a smart low save from Adrián and the goalkeeper then tipped over a Willian free-kick.

Once Chelsea were ahead it seemed they would press on and claim even more goals with Willian going close with an angled low shot after another rapid turnover of ­possession. But Payet’s presence changed the dynamic and from his corner there were howls for a penalty, for handball, as a James Collins’ header struck Azpilicueta. Bizarrely the Chelsea players stopped and the ball dropped back to Collins who slammed a wonderful, crisp shot beyond Thibaut Courtois.

By now the eye was inevitably – constantly – drawn to the touchline – with Bilic and Conte becoming ­increasingly involved as the contest rose to a crescendo. By now both teams were going for it, all six substitutes had been used, and it was Chelsea who got the transformative break. West Ham tried to respond with the ball skittling around the Chelsea area but the home side deserved their victory even if the identity of the scorer was less just.

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Mail:

Chelsea 2-1 West Ham: Diego Costa goes from villain to hero as late strike seals first Premier League win for new manager Antonio Conte

By MARTIN SAMUEL FOR THE DAILY MAIL

Diego Costa swung a right boot, more in desperation than expectation. The night was not going to plan at all.

There was a minute to go and Chelsea were on the brink. Not of victory, although not really of calamity, either; this was hardly an echo of last season. But they were poised to drop points to West Ham at home. And that’s not good around these parts. It would constitute an inauspicious start for manager Antonio Conte.

So Costa tried his luck. Michy Batshuayi, a £33million signing but a late arrival from the bench here, headed the ball down. Costa brought it under control and shot. The ball travelled low, through the legs of James Collins. It meant Adrian, the West Ham goalkeeper, saw it late. Too late. In at the far corner it went. The game would be won, after all. The Conte era was off to a flyer. And so was Conte.

Down the touchline he ran, high-fiving a row of outstretched hands. This is why the foreign coaches come. It’s not just the money. It’s the Premier League. Not the best, not always the classiest — but there really is nothing like it for drama, for excitement, for sound, for fury.

Should Costa have been on the field? Well, that’s another story. Booked in the first half for dissent, he should have received a second yellow for a late lunge on Adrian with 25 minutes to go. The ball was a good yard away when he hit West Ham’s goalkeeper, late and high.

Anywhere else on the field, it would have been a booking. Had Costa not already been booked, it may well have been a booking, too. Yes, Adrian was struggling to bring the ball under control and was fair game. Costa was entitled to make a challenge, and a robust one, too.

But he cannot play the man if he does. So Anthony Taylor, the referee who had seemed so strict in the first half, messed up or lost his nerve. We applaud the Premier League crackdown on dissent, which brought Costa’s first yellow. But it’s all well and good giving referees protection; referees have to ensure that players get it, too.

Still, the best team won and Conte will have been impressed with his team’s resolve. More disturbing is the fact it took pretty much a single West Ham attack to break them down. In the 77th minute, they won a free-kick and, from it, a corner. They had barely been inside Chelsea’s penalty area until that moment, but Chelsea cracked.

They had looked so comfortable, too. So in control. West Ham were at arm’s length. Eden Hazard was running the game. Chelsea looked quick, often slick, and energetic. Watched by England manager Sam Allardyce, Andy Carroll was getting no joy from Conte’s central defenders, nor N’Golo Kante sweeping in front of them. True, it had needed an horrendous mistake from Michail Antonio and a penalty to give them the lead, but Chelsea were good for it. If there was to be a second goal in the game, it was going to the boys in blue.

West Ham's club-record signing Andre Ayew limped off after just 35 minutes with a muscle injury
Then Dimitri Payet came on, and changed the dynamic. Suddenly, Chelsea looked less assured, vulnerable, much like last season. West Ham won a free-kick, then another.

The second was in Payet’s range, just outside the area to the right. Stamford Bridge seemed edgy. He hit the wall, to a relieved cheer, but the ball went out for a corner. And, from there, calamity struck Conte’s men. Chelsea have not kept a clean sheet at home in the league since November; and it will be hard to win the title unless that changes.

Payet swung the corner to Collins. His glancing header may have struck Cesar Azpilicueta’s arm but as several West Ham players appealed Enner Valencia continued playing and clipped the ball back to Collins. He shot, first time, past Thibaut Courtois.

Collins celebrated deliriously, the travelling fans serenading the ‘Ginger Pele’. Someone will have to explain it all to Conte later, when he has calmed down. They may have to explain that this is fairly standard for the Premier League, too, because for a manager used to the order of Serie A, it is going to take some getting used to.

Good grief, it was frantic at times. A game of few chances but plenty of action and early yellow cards. Not so many late ones, though, Taylor displaying the inconsistency for which Premier League officials are renowned. So Kante was booked after three minutes for a foul on Carroll, but not late on for the same challenge on Payet.

As for Costa, if there is to be an instant reckoning for dissent, the penny needs to drop and quick if Chelsea’s striker is not to spend more time suspended than a circus trapeze act. In the 19th minute, Oscar dispossessed Mark Noble, turned and ran on goal. He passed Winston Reid on the outside and there was contact, but it was minimal and barely impeded his run.

Oscar fell, dramatically. A bit soft. Taylor was having none of it. On the touchline, Conte hopped around like a live prawn on a hot plate. Costa chased 40 yards down the pitch to berate Taylor. Big mistake. There is zero tolerance of dissent this season and he became the second name in the book. Third was Collins for kicking Costa; something several of his team-mates may feel like doing if he doesn’t learn to keep his mouth shut.

West Ham were tenacious but, without Payet in the starting line-up and after losing Andre Ayew to a right leg injury after 34 minutes, posed little threat. The home team had the best of the chances.
In the 12th minute, a delightful backheel from Oscar found Branislav Ivanovic on the overlap. He cut inside Cheikhou Kouyate and hit a snap shot, low, at the near post, needing Adrian to have his wits about him to keep it out.

Hazard also came close, making enormous ground on the left after 31 minutes, darting inside and striking a shot just wide of the far post. With virtually the last kick of the first half, Willian struck a free-kick from 25 yards that was deftly flicked over the bar.
Something had to change and Slaven Bilic, the West Ham manager, could be seen in conversation with Payet shortly before the second half began — but it was too late. Within a minute of the restart, Antonio had given away a penalty.

Two mistakes for the price of one. First, he gave the ball straight to Azpilicueta just outside the West Ham area. Then, attempting to limit the damage, he went in on him clumsily as he attacked and sent him tumbling. No doubt in Taylor’s mind this time and Hazard stepped up and smashed his shot high into the roof of the net.

Six minutes later, Antonio was taken off for Sam Byram and Bilic did not even look at him as he marched down the tunnel. It was a foolish, petulant display by the player. Antonio may see himself as more winger than full back, but good wingers don’t pass the ball to the opposition and then foul them in the penalty area. Bilic had every right to be angry

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