Good news for all the Chelsea haters out there: you are still permitted to hate them.
The bad news is that Chelsea are still eminently hateable because they keep winning in that eminently hateable Chelsea style of theirs. Based on Monday's 2-1 win against West Ham, Antonio Conte's side won't finish 10th again this season.
The first Chelsea goal of the Antonio Conte era came via an Eden Hazard penalty, which seemed inevitable after Chelsea players kept running into the area then falling down, writhing and shrieking. Oscar is particularly adept at this.
Mercifully, ginger-bearded center back James Collins equalized with some cheeky underhandedness of his own.
GOOOLLL | 77' James Collins #Chelsea 1-1 #WesthamUnited pic.twitter.com/MEnDitF2yv
— Futbolgramtr (@futbolgramtr) August 15, 2016
Also, Chesea forgetting to mark the guy appealing for a penalty is hilarious. You'd think they'd have practiced against that move enough.
And then Diego Costa, just minutes after sliding into West Ham goalkeeper Adrian (a move that in a just world would have earned Costa a second yellow and a nice long walk to the dressing room), put Chelsea ahead with a strike that reminded everyone that, although he is one of the most irritating players in the Premier League, he's pretty darn good.
Costa Goal pic.twitter.com/Bf1ECDPvkm
— Abang Juwan (@IAmAjuWan) August 15, 2016
Among John Terry, Eden Hazard, Diego Costa, Gerry Cahill and Oscar, it's hard to pick out which is the most annoying. But we have 37 more games to figure that out.
Contact The18 Staff Writer Sam Klomhaus at Klomhaus@The18.com or follow him on Twitter @SamKlomhaus
