English Premier League
Report: Chelsea 2-1 West Ham United
Date: 15 August 2016
Venue: Stamford Bridge
Diego Costa's 89th minute strike handed Chelsea a 2-1 win over West Ham United at Stamford Bridge in their opening Premier League encounter.
French midfielder N'Golo Kante was handed his Premier League debut for the Blues, while Ghanaian star Andre Ayew started made his first competitive start for the visitors.
The opening exchanges proved to be a scrappy affair, with the Blues only going close once in the opening 20 minutes when Branislav Ivanovic forced Adrian into a fine low save.
The Hammers were dealt a serious blow after 30 minutes when Ayew sustained a thigh injury and was forced off. The Ghanaian was replaced by another new signing, Gokhan Tore.
Chelsea started seeing more of the ball as the half drew to a close and they nearly went ahead on the stroke of halftime, but Adrian produced a good save to keep out Willian's free-kick.
Antonio Conte's charges were awarded a penalty moments after the restart when Nemanja Matic was brought down by Michail Antonio. Eden Hazard stepped up and made no mistake from the spot to hand Chelsea the lead.
The Blues continued to search for a second goal and went close after the hour-mark, as Willian forced Adrian into low save, before John Terry headed wide a few moments later.
However, West Ham leveled matters in the 77th minute as the ball fell to James Collins on the edge of the box and the defender rifled home a wonderful volley into the far corner, 1-1.
Antonio Conte introduced Michy Batshuayi and Victor Moses for the final stages, but it was Costa who secured the win in the 88th minute with a fine low strike from 20-yards out.
