Begovic: Chelsea will hit back

Asmir Begovic insists there is no panic at Chelsea and the goalkeeper is confident of regaining ground on Manchester City.

The Premier League season may be in its infancy, but champions Chelsea were dealt an early blow in their title aspirations after being beaten 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

Begovic performed well on his competitive Chelsea debut and there was little he could do to prevent goals from Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and Fernandinho.

Jose Mourinho’s men have started sluggishly, with the City surrender and a 2-2 draw against Swansea City leaving them five points behind Manuel Pellegrini’s team, but Begovic is sure they will soon hit top form.

“All we can do is get past this start, improve on the training ground, get our sharpness going and look to [our next game against] West Brom,” he told Chelsea’s official website.

“It’s still early so we have time to pick up the points we have lost but we need to get some results in the next couple of games to get our season going and then hopefully we can push on for the rest of the season.

“Man City had a point to prove and they came on aggressively from the start. We didn’t match that intensity in the first half, but we responded and in the second half had some chances and were more in control of the game.

“If you don’t score it’s difficult though and unfortunately they sucker-punched us with the second goal which killed the game.”