Match Reports
The Guardian, Daniel Taylor: “The stadium announcer cleared his throat and held up his microphone. “I’m looking forward to introducing this manager more than the last one,” he told the crowd. Stamford Bridge bellowed its approval and the new era was underway. … [I]t was probably a surprise they did not mark the occasion with a proper thrashing given the way they pummelled their opponents in that opening period. Chelsea’s pace dropped after the interval. They had started to look a little jaded before the end and, for ten minutes or so, Hull were even emboldened enough to start threatening Petr Cech’s goal.”
The Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: “At times this felt like a testimonial for Jose Mourinho rather than a Premier League contest. Hull City stirred only in short periods, mainly being outclassed by a Chelsea side who benefited from excellent first-half goals from Oscar and Frank Lampard and a highly promising display from Kevin De Bruyne. The points were easily claimed, the sun shone and all felt good for Chelsea fans. Mourinho was “home” and rapturously acclaimed. Issues remain, such as David Luiz’s future and whether Romelu Lukaku should be starting ahead of Fernando Torres, but otherwise the Bridge was awash with positives.”
The Independent, Sam Wallace: “Jose Mourinho tried hard to keep it low-key when he finally emerged from the tunnel to take his seat yesterday. The problem is that when more than 40,000 people are singing your name, some of whom are wearing masks bearing your likeness, the situation requires more than just a cursory wave. He stood up and sat down three times, eventually blowing kisses to the Chelsea supporters and then, as the game started, he began writing notes on a pad. The love-in was clearly a source of anxiety for him on his return to Stamford Bridge as manager after almost six years away but he needed not worry. His unbeaten home record in the league was never going to be challenged.”
The Official Chelsea FC Website: “A comfortable win kicked off the season with the damage to newly promoted Hull done during a bright first half. Oscar scored our first goal of the campaign followed by a stunning free-kick from Frank Lampard, atoning in style for an early saved penalty. Our all-time record scorer went close again later in the game and good goalkeeping prevented a bigger win, as did greater resistance from the visitors after the break. Jose Mourinho handed three players their first Chelsea competitive games, Kevin De Bruyne making a full debut and Andre Schurrle and Marco van Ginkel introduced in the second half.”
“I’m very happy, I was saying before about the quality, dynamic and creativity. I’ve played so many times here and won so many matches, but I’ve never had such a period of fantastic play like we had.
“In the second half when I saw it going in another direction I was a bit frustrated because I wanted more, but after five or 10 minutes I was thinking that we didn’t because we couldn’t, you can’t play that way for 90 minutes.
“In the second half we had no physical energy or mental availability to play that way. The three boys behind Fernando in the first half were fantastic but in the second half they disappeared. All of them played national team matches. Kevin played 85 minutes against France, Oscar played 80 minutes against Switzerland and Eden played 70 minutes against France.
“When the creativity disappeared we lost the danger in our game. I tried to make a couple of changes but at that time the game was bad, we sat back but our defensive block was very comfortable. The second half wasn’t comparable to the first half but the first half was fantastic.
“I’m happy we managed to win and show this is the football we want to play and can play. Now it’s up to me to make it happen more often.”
Goals and Highlights
Oscar 1-0
Lampard 2-0
Highlights
Happy with 3 points and win. However, it is still team in transition and while we can dominate midfield our striking problem isn’t solved yet.
When the Eastern bore of the Blackwall Tunnel opened in 1967 to complement the existing Eastern bore which had been in use since 1897, all seemed set fair for an old bore to sail through this river crossing some 46 years hence on the last leg of his journey from South West France. A journey planned with fine precision such that; his vehicular conveyance unloaded, baggage unpacked, household fully prepared for re-occupation, children sedated and distaff side watching earlier episodes of Southcliffe, said bore could settle into watch Chelsea open their season against Hull City AFC in a relaxed and anticipatory sense of mind, having taken a stroll to a local hostelry where two of humanity’s finest inventions, the pint and the TV, could be enjoyed in harmonious tandem.
But some fool allowed the sands of time to infiltrate the smooth running gear box of fate.
Yes, the unwise but exponential growth in car use and concomitant lack of proper transport planning that has beset this blighted, urban hell, combined with every other bastard in possession of four wheels and a combustion engine heading to the Blackwall Tunnel at around 2.00pm yesterday, left my plans in tatters.
Only a desperate diversion through the streets of south east London, accompanied by a radio commentary of Spurs toiling in the heat of south east London saw me make it home to the leafy lanes of Hackney via the Rotherhithe Tunnel (opened 1904), in time to catch a very shaky stream while surrounded by the detritus of a two week holiday.
What to make of yesterday? They were very good for half an hour, but at a pace that it would be difficult to sustain through 90 minutes. Not sure what to make of the second half, particularly those patches where Hull seemed to be able to retain possession at will. They were very non-threatening and you would have to assume the attitude on the pitch would have been different had that not been the case.
It will be interesting to see how the team changes over the season, given the players that were not on show yesterday.
The important thing was to get a win and look decent. You always get a few mad results in the early season games, just look at United beating Swansea and scoring four, while Villa let Arsenal score first before righting the ship. It will all settle down.
We need a striker and a player who can dictate the game, in Matas absence,we look like we cant string a series of passes fluently, Willain is a solution, he can do what mata does picking the ball and intelligently distributing it in attack,Mourinho should have realised by now he has bad omlettes in his striking trio.Just put Schuler as a foward and forget the likes of Torres ,Lukaku and Ba there is a complete disconnect between them and our attacking midfielders.
it has been a while 🙂
not a single player followed jose from madrid to london? did it ever happen before?
It looks like we’re pretending the Villa game didn’t happen?
Or perhaps I’ve entered The Matrix, and my experience of being among 42,000 people on Wednesday night watching a football game with one of my shrubs was all in fact merely virtuality. (I haven’t actually seen any of the Matrix films so apologies if the allusion doesn’t work.)
Or perhaps the lingering threat of having to watch Rooney in a Chelsea shirt is leaving us all too busy huddled in corners with our fingers crossed whispering “please God no” over and over again.
Or perhaps no one can believe that Villa (Villa?!) are actually good, and therefore we’d all rather not talk about it.
Mata will not be sold Jose needs quality, He has seen how we struggled against Real and Villa,and has probaly realised we are not world beaters,Jose made a very wise choice in going for Willian.Now he should get rid of the bad omlettes like Ba Torres, Cahill, Moses and Lukaku and bring in Suarez or Rooney.
Chelsea are getting Samuel Eto’o?
He must compromise a lot in personal terms in order to come to Chelsea, but still I think it is mistake to bring him to ST. What was the point to let Didier go and then get another old guy who is not as good as Didier.
So the cost of annoying the Spuds is now £32 million?
I’m all for it in principle, but surely there must be cheaper ways.
I assume Victor Moses will be the man out. Unless we’re going to go all Barca and play Will.I.An as a midget front man. Stick him in front of Hazard and Mata and Oscar and we might score a lot of goals by running under defenders’ legs.
I believe we sell Moses and Ba, my personal believe though.
01 Cech
02 Ivanovic
03 Cole
24 Cahill
26 Terry
07 Ramires
08 Lampard
11 Oscar
15 De Bruyne
17 Hazard
14 Schurrle
No official striker, well TSO is banking on his lurking midfielders. Let’s see looks like Jose has a plan 😉
Dull as ditchwater. Any sign of ambition firmly put back in its box after 60 mins. Worried about Schurrle – who looks like a workhorse, no trick pony with no left foot – but happy with a point. It’s best perhaps to forget this game and push onto Bayern for the first trophy of the season.
Let’s give Schürrle a chance, shall we? He’s 22 and he’s been here a month.
It would be a mistake not to be impressed by that defensive performance. Van Persie’s a deadly dangerous player and Fat Wazza had a very good game, as did Valencia; and yet between them they didn’t do much more than scratch the surface.
Far too easy to ignore how important that is.
Spot bloody on, and I don’t know why people seem to be quick in worrying about, or writing people off from our third competitive game. It was a solid performance against one of the favourites on their home turf.
Was Van Persil playing? 😉
Yes he was playing, but was reduced to being anonymous. I think the last thing we should do is to blame players. TSO had a plan and they followed it and he has admitted it by him self in post match interview, so I don’t think anybody should be blamed in anything.
Martinez seems to be a pretty decent buy,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn_4FKyv-ik thats if robert( the polish) refuses