Chelsea vs. Hull City: Final score 2-0, Tigers don’t offer much resistance
While the score wasn’t too lopsided, the match certainly was. Chelsea had no problem defeating Hull in their season opener.
Hull got off to a horrible start, with Allan McGregor conceding a penalty. He unnecessarily came outside of his net to chase a ball on the edge of the area and managed to punch Fernando Torres in the head while trying to clear. He came up with an impressive save on Frank Lampard's penalty to keep the score level, but he didn't keep a clean sheet for long.
Kevin De Bruyne, who was making his Chelsea debut, set up the opener with a fantastic through ball to Oscar in the 13th minute. The Hull defense was caught flat-footed by de Bruyne’s pass and Oscar’s run, which was followed up by composed close-range finish.
Chelsea doubled their lead in the 25th minute through Lampard, who made up for his earlier miss with a stunning free kick. After James Chester took down Fernando Torres outside of the box, Lampard stepped up and hit a knuckling rocket that evaded the hand of McGregor and drifted into the top corner.
Branislav Ivanovic nearly put the game away in first half stoppage time, off a corner, but was thwarted by McGregor. The Hull keeper came up with a brilliant save on Ivanovic's header, batting it just off the line while he was falling backwards. Chelsea protested that the ball went over the line, but the referee and Hawkeye said otherwise.
Tom Huddlestone and Jake Livermore came on for their Hull City debuts in the 59th minute and made a positive contribution, but didn't do enough to help Hull get back into the match. While the final 30 minutes were much more even than the first 60, Petr Cech was hardly tested.
Marco van Ginkel and Andre Schürrle both came on for their Chelsea debuts to a good reception from the fans, but they entered after the game was all but finished and didn’t have much of a chance to make their presence known.
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