LONDON: Diego Costa thrust himself back into the headlines with an 89th-minute winner as Chelsea edged West Ham United 2-1 in Antonio Conte’s first Premier League game as manager on Monday.
Eden Hazard, symbol of Chelsea’s slump from champions to a 10th-place finish last season, opened the scoring at Stamford Bridge with a penalty early in the second half, before James Collins equalised in the 77th minute.
Costa arguably should have been shown a second yellow card after catching West Ham goalkeeper Adrian with a late challenge, but he stayed on to steer a dramatic winner into the bottom-left corner from 20 yards.
The bruising Spain striker’s goal capped a positive night for Conte, who handed a full debut to former Leicester City man N’Golo Kante and saw another debutant, substitute Michy Batshuayi, set up the winning strike.
But it was a bitter defeat for West Ham manager Slaven Bilic, who lost debutant Andre Ayew to an apparent right thigh injury in the 34th minute.
