Swansea City vs. Chelsea: Score and Reaction from 2016 Premier League Match

Chelsea dropped points for the first time in the 2016-17 Premier League campaign after drawing 2-2 against Swansea City on Sunday, as Diego Costa struck twice to secure a point for the visitors.

The Spain striker opened the scoring before the Swans hit back with two goals in the space of three minutes thanks to Gylfi Sigurdsson and summer signing Leroy Fer.

Summer signings David Luiz and Marcos Alonso failed to make their Blues debuts off the bench at the Liberty Stadium, with manager Antonio Conte instead being forced to throw on attacking reinforcements after his side fell behind 2-1.

In true Costa fashion, the Chelsea front man was arguably fortunate to stay on the pitch for 90 minutes following several run-ins with the opposition, and Goal's Nizaar Kinsella testified to his involvement:

Swansea manager Francesco Guidolin lined up with three defenders at the back, with Neil Taylor and Kyle Naughton advancing down the wings either side of them—clearly with the aim of getting bodies behind the ball.

It appeared to work to good effect too, as the Liberty Stadium hosts mounted an advantage in the possession stakes early on, boasting more than 60 percent of the ball after 15 minutes, per WhoScored.com.

A lack of incision up front prevented Guidolin's men from making any impact in front of goal, whereas Costa was more predatory when he snapped up an inside ball from team-mate Oscar after 18 minutes.

That breakthrough marked Costa's sixth goal in just his fourth appearance against the Swans, his best record against any Premier League club.

With not much to speak of in terms of penetrative potential, Swansea will have been particularly disappointed to concede first, and Squawka highlighted just how prolific Costa can be from close range:

The likes of Sigurdsson and Fer endeavoured to get their side back into the fray for the remainder of the first half, but a speculative effort from the former on 40 minutes was as close as they got to equalising.

Willian also had a call for a penalty not long before the break following a challenge in the area from Fer, but referee Andre Marriner paid no heed to those shouts as Chelsea took a 1-0 lead in at the break.

It looked like Costa might have been an early casualty in the second period after Swansea's Jordi Amat went rushing into the back of Chelsea's talisman—the first of numerous clashes between the pair.

Disaster struck when Thibaut Courtois was caught out of position in the 59th minute, however, and ESPN FC's James Tyler could only laugh after Courtois fouled Sigurdsson in his own area:

Swansea's Iceland international stepped up to slot home from 12 yards out, but a calamitous period for the visitors went from bad to worse after Fer robbed Gary Cahill of the ball deep in Chelsea's half.

There was evidence to suggest Fer fouled Cahill to rob the ball, but he proceeded to march on Courtois' net, nutmegging the Belgium goalkeeper before trickling the ball in and leaving Conte dumbfounded.

Three minutes was all Swansea needed to turn matters around, and Eden Hazard came close to recording an instant reply for the away team, but Lukasz Fabianski was quick enough to shut out his and Costa's attempts.

Chelsea's attack continued to knock on Fabianski's door, which finally gave way after Oscar found Branislav Ivanovic surging into the Swansea box, and his ricocheted cross found its way to a lurking Costa.

The 27-year-old risked kicking Naughton in the head with his overhead kick, which simply had too much power on it to be kept out of Fabianski's net. The strike left Match of the Day's Gary Lineker in awe:

Hazard and N'Golo Kante continued to chip away at the Swans' net for the remainder of the clash, and Conte brought Michy Batshuayi off the bench late in an attempt to swing the result in the Blues' favour.

The last few minutes of the encounter were some the most entertaining, with both sides rallying from one end to the other and back again in what finished as an open back-and-forth.

In the end, a share of the spoils seemed like a fair result. Chelsea are perhaps sad to have dropped their chance at three points, while the Swans reaped the benefits of their strong initiative in the second half.

Chelsea now have just five days to prepare for Friday evening's Premier League fixture at home to Liverpool, while Swansea travel to Southampton next Sunday in a hope they can build on their Week 4 result.

Post-Match Reaction

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The two managers cast very contrasting figures in the wake of Sunday's result, with Conte unsurprisingly giving a much more dejected response than his Swansea counterpart, Guidolin.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the draw, Conte rued his side's inability to find the second goal when they needed it most (h/t BBC Sport):

"It's a bit difficult to talk about the game because we lost two points. We were dominating the game and leading 1-0 and created a lot of chances to score the second and third goals. It's a pity because when you have the possibility to kill the game you must kill the game."

Guidolin took the time to single out Taylor for his response after being tactically substituted in the first half, before going on to add his pleasure with the result: "It is a good result against a very strong Chelsea team. For us it was difficult after the first [Chelsea] goal because before then we played good football."