Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo was all praise for new signing Eden Hazard after the Belgian playmaker shone for the Blues in his first start in the English Premier League against Wigan.
Hazard created both goals for Chelsea in their 2-0 win over the Latics, with the Belgian providing the assist for the Blues' first strike scored by Branislav Ivanovic, while winning a penalty soon after, which was dispatched easily by Frank Lampard.
"He showed all his quality today," Di Matteo said. He was outstanding and combined well with his team-mates.
"He was a threat and exactly what we were looking for. He has great technical ability, a turn of pace. He can play with his back to goal and has a lot of characteristics he can bring to our team.
"With this kind of player, they are difficult to mark because of the movement, they are good on the ball, so I don't think teams will try to kick him, it will just be a matter of the game.
"I brought in another guy that is not bad himself, so I wanted to freshen it up a bit and give a debut to Oscar as well."
Chelsea scored two goals within the first six minutes, to open their campaign in fantastic style, and veteran midfielder Lampard was also pretty impressed by his new team-mate Hazard, who won the man of the match ward.
"Hazard showed glimpses of that in pre-season for us and it's great to have a player who can unlock a door," the England international said. "It was a great turn for the first and skill in the box for the second, which changes games.
"It's not easy at a young age to come into the Premier League no matter how good a player you are. It's something the Chelsea fans are crying out to see and it's good to play with him."
Chelsea struggled for the rest of the game, with Wigan enjoying loads of possession. Only a couple of good saves by Petr Cech kept the score at 2-0, with Blues target Victor Moses particularly impressing with his trickery in the wide areas.
"It was a good result, this is a tough place to come and play but the way we came and played in the first 15 minutes decided the game," Lampard said. "After that it was pretty close but we had that advantage.
"You always want to get a win and coming here was a very tough game but we started very well. After that it was very even but we always had that lead."
Di Matteo concurred. "I'm very pleased with the performance and result. It's always tricky, the first game of the season, like you saw yesterday.
"We played away at Wigan who finished last season on a strong note. Last season we drew here and in the home game had a tough encounter. We were expecting a difficult game and the two early goals really helped us and settled a lot of nerves."
Wigan manager Roberto Martinez was disappointed by his side's start, but really pleased with the way his players reacted after going behind. "We started really softly," he admitted. "We had a lack of intensity and if you do that in this league you will get punished.
"But with the manner in which we reacted, I couldn't be happier. It was a big test, not just in the technical ability of our team but in terms of our character.
"It couldn't have been a harder test for all our boys. It would have been all too easy to feel sorry for ourselves and accept defeat but I don't think we did that.
"I thought Chelsea were happy to defend well and run the clock down, and I took that as a real compliment to the side.
"Before the game I wanted the team to perform in the manner we did last season and I think we achieved that."
