Jorginho marked his Premier League debut with a goal as Chelsea kicked off their campaign with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Huddersfield Town at the John Smith’s Stadium.
Italy international Jorginho passed home a fearless penalty in the 45th minute as Maurizio Sarri earned his first competitive win at the helm after his team went down to Manchester City in the Community Shield last weekend, while fellow debutant and the world’s most expensive goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga started with a clean sheet.
Jorginho, who followed Sarri’s path from Napoli for a reported £50million, added to the opener from World Cup-winning midfielder N’Golo Kante, who returned as one of three changes to the team that lost to City.
Huddersfield struggled to test the Kepa his first outing since joining from Athletic Bilbao for £72m as Chelsea dominated the second period, with Pedro adding the gloss after a brilliant counter-attack launched by substitute Eden Hazard.
Chelsea were lacking dynamism and conviction as Huddersfield sat deep and proved difficult to break down, but Pedro’s driving run and pass out to Willian enabled the Brazilian to pick out Kante, who scuffed a left-footed volley into the ground and inside the far post in the 34th minute.
Huddersfield were a persistent threat from crosses into the box and they went close to an equaliser when Steve Mounie headed Mathias Jorgensen’s flick-on against the inside of the upright.
But Chelsea again punctuated a strong spell for the hosts with a goal, Jorginho sitting debutant Ben Hamer down with a skip in his run-up for an incredibly cool spot-kick after Christopher Schindler caught Marcos Alonso at the end of a neat move from the Blues.
The Blues were the sole aggressors in the second half and, after Hamer parried a header from Antonio Rudiger behind, Alonso sent an acrobatic effort against the crossbar in the 58th minute.
Hazard came on for Willian for just his second outing since the World Cup and poked a pass through the legs of Terence Kongolo for Pedro to lift Chelsea’s third beyond Hamer and round off a routine win.
Maurizio Sarri’s first competitive win in charge of Chelsea came after goals
