Chelsea’s trip to Hull was a crucial match at both ends of the table. After a difficult few weeks and Manchester City’s rampant victory at home to West Brom on Saturday, Chelsea were desperate to flex their title-challenging muscles once again; Hull are embroiled in a relegation battle and any point is crucial in their bid for survival.
Chelsea were clear favourites going into the match, but in Dame N’Doye, Hull have a striker in form, so it certainly wasn’t going to be a forgone conclusion. Hull set up to defend with three at the back, which left them open and meant that if Chelsea gained momentum things could get messy.
Chelsea raced out of the starting blocks, going 2-0 up in nine minutes. It was almost like the Hull team hadn’t left the changing room. A great strike from Eden Hazard, after the Hull City defence stood off, offering the Belgian a free shot. For the second goal, Michael Dawson made a huge mistake in letting Diego Costa onto his right foot ten yards away from goals. Chelsea were in total control, dictating the tempo of the game and cruising. Even when N’Doye played in Abel Hernandez, one-on-one with Thibaut Courtois the young Uruguayan dispatched his shot poorly. Hernandez is certainly yet to live up to his £10million price tag.
Steve Bruce changed Hull’s formation to a 4-5-1, pushing Paul McShane out to right-back and playing N’Doye deeper.
Within minutes Hull had pulled one back. A fantastic run by Hull left-back Andrew Robertson aided by a poor challenge from Branislav Ivanovic, then he laid the ball on a plate for Ahmed Elmohamady to slide home. Somehow Hull City were back in the game. Then came the game changer. An absolute howler by Courtois. Even Hernandez, who hadn’t scored a goal for five months, couldn’t miss that. In defence of the young Belgian goalkeeper, the backpass from the usually consistent Ivanovic was pretty poor. He should know by now that his keeper is left-footed and not right, but Courtois should still have done better. No changes were made, but you can be safe in the knowledge that Jose Mourinho had some harsh words for his team at half-time.
Neither side started the second half well. Throughout the second period there were plenty of aggressive challenges, but Michael Oliver kept control of the game well.
Chelsea had the majority of the possession in the second half, but Hull City defended admirably. Chelsea couldn’t find a way through. In fact, at one point it looked like Hull City would take the lead, but a sensational string of three consecutive fingertip saves from Thibaut Courtois kept the score at 2-2. The Belgian more than made up for his clanger in the first half.
Then unfortunately or fortunately, however you want to look at it, Diego Costa got injured and Jose Mourinho was forced in to a change. On came Loic Remy. With the injury to Costa this was a great chance for Remy to stake a claim to start the next game at home to Stoke City. And boy did he take it. Within 92 seconds of entering the fold the Frenchman scored the winner away to Hull, just like he did for Newcastle United last season. Chelsea’s dominance in possession finally took its toll and they managed to grind out a really important three points.
Chelsea regained their six point lead over Manchester City; Hull plunged further into the relegation dogfight.
