• Chelsea 1 (Hazard 7) Hull City 0
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GOAL!! 68 min Chelsea 2 Hull 0 (Costa)
68 min Free kick fizzed maliciously straight towards goal. Chester with a crucial header behind. Chelsea take the corner short, Hull clear, but can't get it off Chelsea or out of their own half at the moment.
67 min Here comes the game's 74th yellow card. James Chester is the lucky recipient, he wins the ham. Chelsea have a free kick on the left-hand edge of the box. This is Jonathan Liew's take on the red card:
64 min Steve Bruce adjusts to his new 10-man reality by removing Aluko and throwing on Brady.
63 min Penalty shout for Chelsea as a Hazard cross deflects off Costa and hits James Chester around the elbow. Struck him clearly enough but Chester knew nothing about it. Chris Foy correct to ignore.
60 min RED CARD FOR HULL! Tom Huddlestone is out of here. More cards a branch of MVC in this game, but that one was completely deserved, Huddlestone left his foot in and caught Luis's trailing leg after the Chelsea player beat him to the ball. Result was a shocking, ugly, stamp right on Chelsea's left-back's knee. That looked horrendous. Don't think it was intentional, mind.
58 min Sustained pressure from Chelsea now, they're holding onto the ball for long periods and keeping it close to the edge of the box. Costa though, is booked for simulation after a non-foul by Davies. His yellow adds to Chelsea's previous crimes against fainess. Wally Downes Jr is on point:
56 min GET A GRIP WILLIAN! He's irritating me now, and I've really got no stake in Chelsea being good. I like QPR, you see. Utterly useless free kick from the left, gigantically overhit and easy for McGregor to catch above his head. Alex Bruce is booked for an over-enthusiastic slide tackle from behind on Willian. He's as annoyed with him as I am.
54 min Gary Cahill, on a booking you will no doubt remember, goes over in the box like a star of an acrobatic show on the West End stage after Huddlestone and Meyler made way for him. That's a dive. Hull want him booked. Referee Chris Foy is unmoved.
53 min Mildly annoyed groans turning to actual anger from the Stamford Bridge crowd now as Oscar wastes a free kick from the right. Fails to clear the first man. Rio Ferdinand is not cool:
51 min Livermore goes close! Neat play from Hull then a smart lay-off tees up Jake Livermore who has a crack on the half volley from 20 yards out. Just wide.
49 min No obvious early sign of improvement for Chelsea in this half, Hull have had the better of it so far. You feel they need to make it tell within the next 10 minutes. Chelsea, surely, will pick it up. Here's that moment when Cech got bored in the first half and went for a wander and a dodgy punch:
46 min Second half go now, and Hull quickly win a free kick close to the byline on the left. Huddlestone sends it near post but it is not strong. Costa hacks it away.
15:48 Yep, it's Mourinho Chelsea alright. Early dominance, early lead, not a moment of wasted energy since. Jose won't be happy with the lapses his side made after going ahead, Willian particularly culpable of slopiness, but plenty of other culprits behind him, and Hull have grown into it. But you'd be a brave person to predict anything other than a Chelsea win. In the five minutes before the half time whistle Chelsea shifted up to second gear and a goal looked imminent. There are several higher gears available to them if necessary in the second half. See you in 15.
HALF TIME
45+2 min Into the final added minute. Felipe Luis in space for Chelsea close to the byline on the left. Hull stand up to the cross. Matic wins it and lays it off to Oscar who bears down on the box. Elmohamady's there to tackle. That's the half.
45 min Rusty, Petr? Chelsea's second choice keeper goes on an excursion towards the edge of the box as a deep Hull free kick is sent into the area. His punch is very weak and floats off towards the left where Meyler stabs it towards goal with a quasi-lob. Terry deals with it.
44 min Chelsea turn themselves up to medium/low heat as we head towards half time. More bobbins from Willian, who fails to control a straightforward ball but Hazard recovers it and jinks his way clear of Huddlestone, who's doing an industrious job for Hull. Chelsea eventually muster a cross but it's meat and drink and catchable for McGregor.
42 min Chelsea free kick wide on the left. Swung into the box. Mikel challenging, McGregor in no-man's land, Meyler heads it behind for a corner which is ineffectual. Jonathan Liew is doing some ultra-modern cross-channel promotion for this liveblog on the Twitter and has promised pictures, plural, of a young Steve Bruce. I better give him what he wants:
40 min Jelavic takes the free kick. Portentous run up... Straight into the face of Chelsea wall member number three.
39 min Aluko's having a difficult afternoon. Had his shin stood on by Mikel just before Hazard scored, now Cahill steams into him with a naughty challenge 30 yards from goal. The England centre back is booked, Aluko is down. When he's up, or humanely destroyed, we'll have a Hull free kick.
38 min Willian's given the ball away about 12 times already today. Here's hoping for an old-school Joe Cole-era barracking from Mourinho after the game. Near disaster for Hull soon afterwards as Bruce and Chester go for the same ball, tackle each other, and Costa nearly nips in for a clear shot on goal. Chester recovers to clear. A good point from Twitter's Priya Ramesh:
35 min Jelavic, Aluko and Livermore contrive to put some neat passes together in Chelsea territory. The intent of the move dribbles away and it's soon back with Petr Cech. Much improved from Hull, though, after their brainfart of an opening to the match.
32 min This is borderline sloppy from Chelsea now, John Terry giving away a corner for no reason whatsoever. It's cleared but now Ivanovic is down with a broken head. I think he'll be okay. He's made of metal and cigarettes. Look at how happy Oscar was with making the first goal:
31 min Willian is correctly cautioned for diving after drifting past Curtis Davies, losing the ball then pretending to have been fouled. Davies visibly got out of the way. Silly Willy.
30 min First spell of comfortable, assured possession for Hull. Unfortunately it's entirely 40 yards from their own goal, and only featuring their back five working it between one another laterally. Still, it beats conceding seven more goals. Chelsea haven't done much since their first.
27 min Chelsea corner now after Ivanovic's pull-back for Costa is bundled behind. Cross from the Quadrant Zone is headed straight over by Cahill.
26 min Blimey, Hull have a corner. Briefly looks to be reaching Meyler, who's got some separation, in NFL terms, from Matic on the far edge of the six yard box. The ball's a little bit away from Meyler, and he clearly handles it. He's booked.
24 min Steve Bruce is audible through the touchline microphones. I hear "PASS! PASS IT! PASS!" Then some words that I cannot reproduce here if I want to remain employed for the second half.
23 min Crowd is lively at the Bridge, think they can smell blood. They're also quick to exapseration, making a displeased noise as Matic gives it away unusually just inside his own half. Hull soon win another deep free kick which is punted aimlessly goalwards. Chelsea head clear, but there are mild signs of improvement from City. Here's Eden Hazard scoring the game's first goal:
21 min Not much in the way of an outlet for Hull when they do get the ball, it's all hopeful punts torwards Jelavic. But here's a glimpse of an opening. Possession stolen near the centre circle, Meyler shifts it quickly inside to Jelavic who's a little clumsy as he turns and plays in Aluko to his left 20 yards out. Aluko's into the box in a hurry but his shot is snatched at and over.
19 min Just noticed that the fan below has come to the game with a "selfie stick", not a golf club as I first thought. Hmmm... #againstmodernfootball.
18 min Chelsea look up for it. Excellent pressure from Willian and Hazard after the former loses the ball when steaming towards goal. Well dealt with by Meyler on that occasion, but Hull still can't get a hold of the ball in any meaningful way.
15 min Hazard on the ball in the box. DANGER, HULL! None of the away team can get close to him! Chester and Robertson doing a combination of standing off and failing to send him away from danger. Some tricks from Hazard but his backwards pass comes to nothing. This is worrying for Hull. Mixed feelings about this picture of a Chelsea fan ahead of kick-off:
13 min Oscar's cross for the opening goal was a total delight. Whipped it with total certainty and pinpoint accuracy. That will happen if you allow excellent players about 30 seconds to decide what they want to do with the ball when they receive it close to the box.
10 min Dawson's heading off, alas. It's Alex Bruce on in his place. Hull thump a free kick into the box, Curtis Davies aims a kick so high that it actually clears the top of John Terry's stooping head. That's not allowed. Chelsea free kick.
9 min Hull mildly peeved about a possible foul on Aluko by Mikel in the build-up to that goal. And now Michael Dawson's gone down "with an 'ammy". Not along with a hamstring owned by someone else, he's hurt his own. Rotten start for the men in amber and black and a relegation fight.
GOAL!! 7 min Chelsea 1 Hull 0 (Hazard)
Nowhere near good enough from Hull. Chelsea work it out to Oscar on the left. He has time and space to find a cross from deep, Hazard's got a lot to do as it arrives at the far post but rises convincingly above Chester and puts a low header past the irrelevant McGregor.
6 min Exactly as you'd expect so far. Chelsea dictating the pace, position and direction of the football. Hull trying to remember how to make 3-5-2 look convincing after it's been so horribly abused this season.
4 min Chelsea pour forward in numbers for the first time, Hull pushed well back as Hazard drifts into space on the right. Backwards pass to Willian who's in support, who finds Luis in space on the edge of the box. Indecisive chipped through ball to no-one is his contribution. It's out for a goal kick. Shot looked on, there. Note: Luis not Luiz. He's out of our lives.
3 min Hull playing with three at the back, Dawson, Davies and Chester. If you can't beat Chelsea, make it hard for them. John Terry moving as if inspiced with the flavour of ginger after a meaty early tackle. No danger of him going off yet. He is made of nails.
1 min Here we go then, Chelsea get us started, with a kick-off that screams invincible confidence.
14.58 A question from William Hargreaves:
Is Ruben Loftus-Cheek related to Kim Kardashian?
No sorry Bill, I think you're thinking of Ruben Loftus-Kardashian.
14.55 The teams are coming out at Stamford Bridge. *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* "Chelsea!" and all that. What odds of a Chelsea "mauling" by the Tigers, and a repeat of the Premier League's least intimidating fan behaviour this afternoon?
I'll tell you what odds: 20/1. Is that worth some money? I don't know. I lost faith in betting a couple of months ago when Wolves failed to beat Birmingham the week after Birmingham had lost 8-0. At home. To Bournemouth.
14.50 It is surely time for some retro highlights. These are brought to you by the year 1999, featuring Boothferry Park, Chris Sutton and several current managers:
14.45 The afternoon's first email from Philip Podolsky with his favourite Chelsea player nomination:
Eidur [Gudjohnsen] fan here. So classy on the ball, so endearingly useless. Beauty for beauty's sake you might say. Played for both Barca and Stoke. An Icelander. In short, a legend, total legend.
14.40 Do you want a gratuitous picture of Steve Bruce as a young man? Don't say you weren't warned:
14.30 Jonathan Liew is our man on at the ground this afternoon. Stamford Bridge sounds maudlin:
14.20 Clearly Chelsea are the team carrying a greater attacking threat today, but the stats suggest Hull might be quite tricky to score against. They're actually not that far off Chelsea in most of the key defensive areas:
Alright, they've conceded a ton more goals, but there's enough there to suggest a successful bus-parking could be achievable.
14.10 Did you read the match preview? I hope you did. If so, you won't need me to tell you that Cech's in for Courtois because the Belgian's got a minor injury. Not because Jose Mourinho has fallen out of love with Chelsea's emerging candidate for biggest dreamboat. Three changes for Hull: Roberton, Jelavic and Davies in. Rosenior, Hernandez and Quinn drop to the bench. Leroy, Javier and Niall will be able to continue the game of Top Trumps they started on the coach down.
14.01 ...and almost immediately, we've got the teams:
Chelsea: Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry (c), Filipe Luis; Mikel, Matic; Willian, Oscar, Hazard; Diego Costa.
Subs: Schwarzer, Zouma, Azpilicueta, Ramires, Schurrle, Remy, Drogba.
Hull: McGregor; Elmohamady, Dawson, Chester, Roberton; Davies; Meyler, Livermore, Huddlestone; Aluko, Jelavic.
Subs: Jakupovic, Rosenior, Bruce, Hernandez, Brady, Ramirez, Quinn
Referee: Chris Foy
14.00 Afternoon liveblog fans.
Chelsea are beatable! Rejoice! And all it took was a streaky manager, a relatively in-form striker and some dastardly ball boys.
No such shenanigans are possible at Stamford Bridge this afternoon, unless Steve Bruce has engaged in some under-the-table naughtiness with the Chelsea ball-retreiving staff, desperate for some extra money for Christmas presents and king size Twix bars.
You'd expect a performance of stubborness and Alex Bruce-powered grit from the visitors rather than any attempt to actually, you know, beat Chelsea. And why not? Defend resolutely, wind up Eden Hazard, nick a goal, then probably concede one. That'll do nicely.
But Hull haven't won since the beginning of October, and never on this ground in their history. This fixture also looks an ideal reboot for Mourinho's side after their unexpected diversion to the republic of not getting any points (it's a little-known sovereign state in Newcastle city centre) last weekend.
The big names are back after being rested in midweek, Ruben Loftus-Cheek wasn't put up for a pre-game interview, a home win by a margin of four goals or more is wholly plausible.
Will that happen? Time and football will tell. This is the absolute best place to keep track of those things.
Team news and much more to follow, stick around.
12.10 Thom Gibbs will be here from 14:00 with piping hot team news, searingly piping build-up and ferociously warm kit criticism ahead of Chelsea's attempts to look invincible again. In the meantime, you can read this:
MATCH PREVIEW
Goalkeeper Petr Cech will make his first Barclays Premier League start of the season against Hull on Saturday after Thibaut Courtois suffered a minor injury in training.
Playmaker Cesc Fabregas will serve a one-match suspension as Jose Mourinho reverts to the majority of his first-choice line-up.
Defender John Terry and forwards Eden Hazard and Willian were rested for the midweek defeat of Sporting Lisbon, which saw Mourinho make six changes to the side which lost for the first time this season last weekend at Newcastle.
Hull captain Curtis Davies could be handed a recall for the trip to Barclays Premier League leaders Chelsea.
The centre-half has been dropped for the last two matches, but manager Steve Bruce could revert to a back three at Stamford Bridge, opening up a vacancy at the back.
Gaston Ramirez has completed a three-game ban, but fellow loanee Hatem Ben Arfa is set to continue his exile from the squad.
Provisional squads (from)
Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Luis, Fabregas, Zouma, Ramires, Oscar, Hazard, Drogba, Mikel, Schurrle, Salah, Remy, Costa, Matic, Willian, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta, Schwarzer, Beeney, Loftus-Cheek, Christensen.
Hull City: McGregor, Jakupovic, Davies, Rosenior, Robertson, Chester, Dawson, Bruce, Elmohamady, Meyler, Huddlestone, Livermore, Brady, Aluko, Quinn, Ramirez Hernandez, Aluko, Jelavic.
Referee: Chros Foy. Matches: 10, Y28 R4
Betting: Home 1-5, Away 14-1, Draw 5-1.
Stat of the game: Hull have never won at Chelsea in any competition, a run of 20 games (lost 15, drawn five).
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