Di Matteo hails new boy Hazard

The Belgian midfielder was the European champion's most high-profile signing of the northern summer, arriving from Lille for a reported £32 million ($48.18 million) in June.

And he wasted little time making an impact in the league opener at the DW Stadium, setting up Branislav Ivanovic for the first goal inside two minutes and then winning the penalty that Frank Lampard scored to make it two after only seven minutes.

Di Matteo said: "He showed all his quality today, he was outstanding. He combined very well with his team-mates, was a threat, exactly what we were looking for.

"He's got great technical ability. He's got a burst of pace as well, he can play with his back to goal, and he's got a lot that he can bring to our team."

While Hazard was enjoying his debut, Wigan defender Ivan Ramis was having a much tougher time on his, with the Spaniard turned easily by the Chelsea midfielder for the first goal and then fooled into making a crude challenge to give away the penalty.

But the scoreline did not tell the whole story, with Wigan dominating much of the rest of the game.

Chelsea target Victor Moses and former Blue Franco Di Santo both drew decent saves from Petr Cech in the first half, while the introduction of the Latics' new striker, Arouna Kone, with 23 minutes left gave the host an added threat.

The Cote d'Ivoire international headed wide and then drew another save from Cech late on, with Jordi Gomez volleying the rebound acrobatically just wide.

Fernando Torres came closest to adding to Chelsea's tally in the 63rd minute with a shot that beat Ali Al Habsi but was cleared off the line by Ramis.

Di Matteo felt he could not have asked for more from the first game, saying: "I'm very pleased with the performance and the result. It's always tricky the first game of the season, like you saw from the results yesterday.

"Last year we drew here and the home game we had a very tough encounter against Wigan so we were expecting a difficult game and the two early goals really helped us and settled a lot of nerves.

"We nearly scored the third goal, which probably would have killed off the game completely, but I thought we were always quite comfortable."

Di Matteo was tight-lipped on any potential new offer for Moses, with Wigan so far refusing to sell the winger unless its valuation is met.

Latics boss Roberto Martinez admitted it was a risk to start the 21-year-old with the speculation surrounding his future but was happy with Moses' performance.

Martinez said: "We haven't had an offer that matches his valuation so we haven't had to make a decision.

"Victor knows that if (a club) doesn't want a player enough, it's not a good move. I'm delighted Victor's here, I'm delighted he showed he's desperate to perform for our team."

Wigan was hoping to pick up where it left off last season as it survived another relegation battle so Martinez was understandably frustrated by its start.

He said: "In pre-season you work so hard to try to start well and unfortunately today I don't think our start was the right one. We were too soft, I don't think we had any defensive intensity and we got caught a little bit too easily.

"Sometimes you get away with it because as long as you react well you've still got a big say in the game but, playing a team like Chelsea, they took their chances really well, they punished us massively.

"I was very pleased from that moment on. It couldn't have been a harder test for all our boys. It would have been all too easy to feel sorry for ourselves and accept defeat but I don't think we did that.

"We showed great character, we had a few chances, and it was a matter of getting that goal. I thought Chelsea were happy to defend well and run the clock down, and I took that as a real compliment to the side.

"Before the game I wanted the team to perform in the manner we did last season and I think we achieved that."

Meanwhile, Martinez revealed striker Connor Sammon, who was left out of the squad, is in talks over a move to a Championship side.