A Look At Chelsea Debutants On First Day Of The Season In The EPL Era

When we take on Burnley to begin the season at Turf Moor a couple of new signings would definitely make their debut and us Chelsea faithful’s would be looking at the prospect of good things to come from each and every one of them. Here’s a look back at previous seasons’ opening day fixtures and the new signings that hugely impressed with stellar performances.

Eden Hazard (vs Wigan 2012)

The very first time Chelsea fans got to see Eden Hazard in his glittering quality even though the opponents were Wigan Athletic. The highly rated Belgian had been on radars of Man. City, Man. Utd and even European heavy weight Real Madrid were interested and we got to see a glimpse of why. Hazard set up Branislav Ivanovic for the first goal of the season and his trickery in the Lactics’ box helped get a penalty that Frank Lampard slotted home, leaving Chelsea with the 3 points on opening day and Eden Hazard with the Man of the Match award on his debut.

Deco (vs Portsmouth 2008)

The arrival of new manager, Luiz Filipe Scolari, who had just quit his job as the manager of Portugal saw him sign a couple of their talents to the bridge. Deco was one of the talents and the manager ensured we got to see what the Portuguese playmaker could bring to the table at Chelsea starting him in the first game of the season against Portsmouth. The Blues will walk all over Pompey in a 4-0 trashing with Deco releasing a shot from about 30 yards for the icing on the cake which was well received by Stamford Bridge.

Malouda (vs Birmingham 2007)

Not the season most of us want to remember as it started badly, continued promising and ended in absolute sorrow. However there were a few positives at the beginning before we knew what would later unfold. Claudio Pizzaro scored on his debut and so did Florent Malouda who had previously scored against Man. Utd in the community shield, a warm welcome for them both, but it would be Malouda who would go on to be significant for the club in the future for a couple of years, Pizzaro not quite.

Paulo Ferreira (vs Man. Utd 2004)

Jose had just arrived with a number of fellow Portuguese compatriots majorly from his previous club Porto. Amongst all of them he decided to give Paulo Ferreira a start in Right Back and the Portuguese did not disappoint, Chelsea won 1-0 with a great defensive display against one of the major English heavy weights, Ferreira had a good game, keeping Ryan Giggs at bay.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (vs Man. Utd 2000)

One from the classic era, before we were the title chasing type. FA Cup winning manager, GianlucaVialli, had just signed Hasselbaink from Atlético Madrid for a club record fee of £15 million and he immediately showed his killer instinct in front of goal against a no better opponent than Manchester United. Hasselbaink scored the opening goal before Mario Melchiot doubled our lead. Hasselbaink displayed quality and showed he will be held in high regard at Chelsea for years and years to come.

Who? (vs Hull City 2014)

Filipe Luis, Cesc Fabregas, Diego Costa are very likely to be handed Chelsea debuts, Thibaut Courtois and KourtZouma are highly likely as well. Chelsea fans lay in wait to behold impressive performances from every one of them this new season, but there’s always that passionate greed to have a memorable debut from any of the new arrivals. I wonder who amongst them would make a debut worth the memory of a life time.