Thibaut Courtois received his marching orders as Chelsea laboured to a 2-2 draw with Swansea to begin their defence of the Premier League title with a stalemate at Stamford Bridge. The Belgian was red carded minutes into the second half after bringing down Bafetimbi Gomis inside the Chelsea penalty area, with the Frenchman duly netting from the resulting spot kick.
Oscar netted his fourth career league goal against Swansea midway through the first half to put the Blues in front, before summer signing Andre Ayew drew the Swans level on the half hour mark. Chelsea’s lead was restored a minute later, however, after Willian’s cross took a wicked deflection off Federico Fernandez, lofting over the stranded Lukasz Fabianski and into the net. Gomis drew Swansea level 10 minutes into the second half in an encounter where the visitors could well consider themselves unlucky not to claim the share of the spoils.
Garry Monk’s side were unfortunate not to make their one-man advantage count once Courtois was sent off, with the visitors arguably the better of the two teams. The most impressive performer on the day was without question Jefferson Montero, who gave Blues right-back Branislav Ivanovic a torrid time on the left. The wideman completed more successful dribbles (6) than any other player in the fixture, before being forced off with injury in the 71st minute.
A WhoScored rating of 8.00 was the best of all players, despite Montero missing the final 20 minutes of the encounter in west London. It was a far cry from Eden Hazard, who churned out a hugely disappointing performance for the defending champions, who struggled to gain a foothold in the game.
After a disappointing defeat to Arsenal last weekend, Jose Mourinho now needs to pick his team ahead of the trip to title rivals Manchester City next weekend. Defeat at the Etihad Stadium would be far from ideal for Chelsea in their bid to defend their Premier League crown. Swansea, meanwhile, can take great heart in what was an inspiring performance from the Welsh outfit as they aim to build on their record points haul (56) from last season.
For more stats on Chelsea 2-2 Swansea, click here to see the WhoScored match centre
