| Goals | Goals |
|---|---|
| 2. Branislav Ivanovic (2’) | |
| 8. Frank Lampard (7’) |
Two early goals see Chelsea through
Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic celebrates scoring his side's first goal of the game with Juan Mata
Chelsea had a dream start to the match as Ivanovic has got the opener for Chelsea just inside the second minute. Eden Hazard was instrumental in the goal, picking up the ball on the halfway line before delivering a lovely through ball to put the right-back in a one-on-one and he calmly slot past Al Habsi into the bottom right-hand corner. It was great counter-attacking football from the European champions.
The terrible start for the hosts continued as more misery was soon added two minutes later. With Chelsea on the break again, Ramis gave away a penalty bringing Hazard down with a very clumsy challenge on the right-hand side of the box.
Lampard stepped up and drilled it with power straight down the middle, with the ball going underneath the diving Al-Habsi. Chelsea were off to a dream start with two goals inside seven minutes.
In the 38th minute there was excellent work from Victor Moses as he picked the ball up wide on the right, ran at pace on the edge of the box before dipping his shoulder and driving his way past Ashley Cole, forcing a decent save out of Chelsea keeper Petr Cech with a fierce strike from a narrow angle.
Then on the stroke of halftime in the 45th minute Wigan broke at pace with Moses threading a good ball across the pitch to Figueroa who played a fantastic first-time ball into Franco Di Santo in behind the defence, but his first touch was heavy and Luiz got back to block with Ivanovic mopping up.
In the 64th minute the matc sparked into life for the first time in the second when Bertrand nodded on Lampard's floated pass into the path of Fernando Torres, who got past Caldwell before toe-poking it past Al-Habsi, but his effort was cleared off the line by Ramis.
Promising signs for the future for Chelsea fans was visible in the 71st minute through new signing Oscar.
Torres superb cushioned header into the path of Oscar saw the Brazilian stretch his legs and show a sharp turn of pace as he beat Ramis on the outside before drilling a shot just wide of the left-hand post after surging into the box.
A minute a later Wigan had a chance of their own. A great ball in from Figueroa and the Spaniard was all alone in the box, 12-yards from goal and as he attempted to guide a header into the top corner, he got it all wrong and it sailed over the bar.
The Blues victory over Wigan means that they now haven't lost an opening game of a new season since 1998.
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