Conte praises Chelsea's quick start after victory at Brighton

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte praised his side's quick start after they ran out 4-0 winners at Brighton this afternoon.
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte. Picture by Phil Westlake (PW Sporting Photography)Chelsea boss Antonio Conte. Picture by Phil Westlake (PW Sporting Photography)
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte. Picture by Phil Westlake (PW Sporting Photography)

Eden Hazard and Willian scored inside the opening six minutes, before Hazard and Victor Moses added two more goals in the final 13 minutes.

Chelsea went into the game having failed to score in three of their previous four matches and were without Thibaut Courtois, Danny Drinkwater, Gary Cahill (all injured), Alvaro Morata and Pedro (both suspended) for the game.

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Conte said: "I think it was a good game and a good result for us.

"In the last period we hadn't scored a lot but today we scored four goals and created other chances to improve the final result.

"We kept another clean sheet which is very important for us, despite Brighton creating chances to score.

"Before the game there had been a lot of publicity about suspensions and injuries but we showed a great personality to be a team.

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"We started the game very well, scored twice quickly with good combination between our strikers and we must be happy with this."

Hazard ran the show for Chelsea and asked about the performance of his forward, Conte said: "Eden Hazard scored twice and for us, it's important. But from tomorrow every single player who scored today has to forget and try to score again against Arsenal (in the League Cup on Wednesday).

"I'm happy with today's performance but from tomorrow we have to start to think about another important game against Arsenal."

Albion had two penalty appeals waved in the first half, when Ezequiel Schelotto went down under challenges from Willy Caballero and then Tiemoue Bakayoko.

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Conte feels the introduction of VAR can only help with decisions like that and said: "I think in England a penalty is not simple. It's very difficult for a referee to whistle for a penalty.

"You can see what happened in the last game against Norwich (when Chelsea had a penalty appeal turned down), it's the same.

"I don't know because I didn't see these two situations, so can't give an evaluation. At the same time, I can tell you the new system - if we learn to use it very quickly - can help a lot to avoid big mistakes if there are big mistakes.

"It will be very important for every team because in this way you don't have doubts."

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