Graham Potter’s side were held to a 1-1 draw by the Hammers at the London Stadium on Saturday lunchtime, with Joao Felix’s early strike cancelled out by former Blues left-back Emerson.

Chelsea dominated proceedings in east London but ultimately were left frustrated in our attempts to breach West Ham’s stubborn defence and the Portugal international gave his reaction to the draw, in what was his first game back following suspension.

‘I think we did enough to win, but this is football and you have to accept that West Ham defended well throughout the game,’ Joao said shortly after full-time.

‘In the first 30 minutes, we had the ball in the net three times, two obviously cancelled out for offside, but at this point we were looking strong.

‘We created plenty of good situations and had many chances to score again. We have to accept the draw but we leave with the sensation that we could have had all three points.’

The Portuguese forward was arguably Chelsea’s brightest threat throughout the game but particularly at the start of the game, with his link-up play and vision causing the Hammers numerous issues.

He’d already seen one effort – a classy finish on the rebound – chalked off for offside before he did open his Chelsea account with an expert strike to convert an Enzo Fernandez centre to break the deadlock.

Linking up with his new team-mates is, in his words, ‘easy’ and the Atletico Madrid loanee expressed his happiness at opening his account for the Blues.

‘Scoring my first goal for Chelsea means a lot,’ added Joao. ‘It’s been a difficult start for me with the suspension meaning I was out for around a month.

‘I just want to play, so to get that chance here was very nice and I just had such happiness to score for this club. Hopefully that can be the first of many.

‘Playing in this team with the quality around me, it’s easy. We all connect well and I think there are signs of that happening.

‘Okay, we didn’t get the win on this occasion but we can build on this for the next game and hopefully get the three points going forward.’