Chelsea 2-2 Swansea City
Asmir Begovic praised the resilience of his Chelsea team-mates as the champions began the defence of their Premier League title with a draw at home to Swansea.
The Blues had to play the majority of the second-half with 10 men after Thibaut Courtois was sent off for bringing Bafetimbi Gomis down when he was in on goal, bringing Begovic on for his debut.
The Bosnian could not stop Gomis’s resulting penalty, which bought the scores level after Oscar and a Federico Fernandez own goal had twice put Chelsea ahead either side of Andre Ayew’s equaliser.
“When you go down to 10 men it puts you on the back foot, but we stuck together well, showed good resilience and kept it to the two goals they scored,” Begovic told the Chelsea website.
“It was a decent point in the end. We’ll take the point and move on to next week.
“It was unfortunate with the penalty. I saw it in real time from the bench. It was a difficult one to make out.
“I think it was harsh to send him off, our guys were covering Thibaut.
“We’ll see what the result means as the season goes on but we tried our best.
“Obviously Swansea played well and are a good side, so it took a lot out of us to take the point.”
Courtois’ red card means Begovic could start next Sunday’s clash with Manchester City and he insists he is ready if called upon.
“I came here to be part of this team, be successful and contribute,” he added.
“I want to play as many games as I can, so I look forward to next week.”
Feature image courtesty of Chelsea Football Club, via Youtube, with thanks
