Chelsea 2 - 0 Hull City: A job well done?

Jose Mourinho – A winning start

Jose Mourinho back in the dugout, Frank Lampard defies the critics with yet another goal, a fantastic display of football in the first half and a solid three points on the board, it was the perfect afternoon for Jose Mourinho and his Chelsea team yesterday. Or was it?

Much will be and has been said of our second half performance and I will be interested to hear your views. With all the travelling the players have had to do in pre-season, in addition to those players coming back late after the Confederations Cup, you can forgive them for “taking their foot off the gas” in the second half with the game virtually won.

Then again, there is an argument that with the Premier League being so tight this season, goal difference could become key and we should have really kept our intensity high, pressing high and looked to have scored more.

Chelsea never looked in danger and started the game really well. There were some surprises with Mourinho’s first team selection. Michael Essien and Romelu Lukaku, who had both featured heavily in pre-season, made way for Frank Lampard and Fernando Torres.

The back five of Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry and Cole were nailed on starters after Cesar Azpilicueta and David Luiz were both ruled out of this game.

Ramires continued as he has done in the second deeper midfield position with Eden Hazard, Oscar and Kevin De Bruyne as our three flair players in behind the striker.

You have to hold your hands up and say even at this early stage, our movement off the ball and in between the lines of Hull’s defence and midfield was fantastic. Players’ movement caused Hull so many problems, they literally couldn’t live with us.

It was almost as if the three players had been given a free licence to roam around the pitch when we had the ball. At one stage, Hazard played wide left, then appeared inside and then on the right. De Bruyne would do the opposite and Oscar once again switched sides.

Hull’s defensive line and midfielders were really, really struggling to get to grips with our shape. So much so, Chelsea could and should have been at least four goals in front at half time.

I cannot understand for the life of me what McGregor was doing in goal for Hull when he came out to challenge Fernando Torres just inside the edge of his box. As Torres knocked the ball past him, he clattered into him, catching him in the head and the referee had little option but to award the penalty.

About a second later, McGregor made up for his error with a great save from Frank Lampard’s resultant penalty low down to his right and he pushed the ball away full stretch to deny our record goalscorer.

Chelsea finally opened the scoring through Oscar after once again, Chelsea’s movement off the ball unlocked the door. Eden Hazard played the ball wide left, held off the challenge and came back inside. At this point, De Bruyne had come off the right wing and inside to the edge of the box. Hazard spotted his run and played the ball square to him.

Oscar opened the scoring against Hull

As this happened, Oscar who had drifted towards Hazard, made a move in between the defenders and towards goal. De Bruyne spotted his run and slotted the ball through the defenders legs and onto the run of Oscar. Through on goal, Oscar managed to poke the ball under McGregor as he came off of his line, to make it 1-0 after some fantastic interplay.

Now as we all know, Frank Lampard would have been critical of himself for missing the penalty earlier on but that never deterred him from adding his name to the scoresheet. Fernando Torres went over after a “challenge” from the defender around 35 yards from goal (even though replays showed he dived) and Lampard stepped up to smack a fierce drive that moved in the air, beating the keeper all ends up to make it 2-0.

Chelsea were in total control now and you thought at the time we would go on and score three or four but it never happened. Chelsea created some more chances in the first half and McGregor made two more outstanding saves to deny Lampard and Ivanovic right on half time as he first blocked his header and then parried the ball off the line and clear of danger.

The second half started and you expected Chelsea to dominate the game and score more goals but as stated already, with the game virtually won, we took our foot off the gas and played in second or even third gear.

We created a couple of half chances and Frank Lampard blasted another free kick wide but nothing of real note again.

During the second half it was good to see the introduction of Andre Schurrle, Romelu Lukaku and Marko Van Ginkel with the game won. It was a nice touch from Mourinho as it gave them all a run out to sample the atmosphere at the Bridge.

Of course we would have liked to see Chelsea go for broke in the second half but with Aston Villa visiting the Bridge on Wednesday, after their impressive performance and result at “The Arsenal” on Saturday, you can’t blame the team for going easy.

At the end of the day a win is a win. Three solid points on the board ahead of a busy week as the Premier League gets back into full swing.

It was a fantastic atmosphere yesterday as we celebrated Jose’s return and the beginning of Abramovich’s tenth season in charge.

What did you think of the team selection, performance and the result?

Carefree & KTBFFH!