Three words pretty much summed up my reaction to Chelsea’s start to the 2009/10 season – ‘for fuck sake!’ And such was the repetition with which these three words were used throughout the game that anyone within earshot must have surely concluded I was stricken with Tourette’s. But alas no, I was merely watching a return to Chelsea at their frustrating best (or should that be worst?).
Not even time to catch my breath before Stephen CHunt tried his level best to part Lampard with his wedding tackle, were we surprised? As if! Slightly more surprising was Didier Drogba’s glaring miss seconds later when confronted with three-quarters of the goal to aim at – not that it was the miss that surprised me, more Ray Wilkins shouting ‘oh fuck OFF Didier’ from the dug out. 🙂
To be fair, we had a lively enough start, all the possession and plenty of chances but predictably weren’t putting them away. And I say predictably because we knew last season we were missing that killer touch in front of goal and did sod all about it over the summer.
Give Hull their dues, they kept their shape and discipline with plenty of players behind the ball to frustrate us – even creating the odd threat on the break. And then lady luck shone down on the Stamford Bridge pitch – except her rays missed everyone in a blue shirt as the ball came off Mikel’s knee and fell to the one player I’d pay good money to see hit over the head with a lump of a certain banned salad vegetable. Yep, inside 28 minutes, Stephen Hunt (spits) found himself on the receiving end of a rather large portion of luck, not to mention sloppy Chelsea defending, whilst we found ourselves a goal behind.
Some might say we needed that kick up the arse but it wasn’t that we weren’t putting the effort in or creating chances, more that we just needed to be more clinical in front of goal – and that’s exactly what Drogba was when given a free-kick to take on 37 minutes – up and over the wall, back of the net, lovely goal and we went in 1-1 at the break.
The half-time break saw us bring on Ballack for Mikel, who again looked uncomfortable in the holding role (and I think ‘uncomfortable’ is being generous) and a déjà vu moment as another chance went begging. This time, a bit of slapstick attacking saw Didier Drogba get a lucky deflection and Nicolas Anelka duly hit it into the awaiting arms of Hull’s grateful keeper, swiftly followed by a great ball from Drogba again which Frank Lampard dispatched into the side netting. Cue the new Chelsea boss slapping his thighs in frustration – welcome to our world Carlo!
The second half was pretty much the same as the first – give or take the odd substitution – frustrating. We must’ve had 70% possession and Drogba and Anelka really should’ve put the game well beyond Hull and yet that didn’t happen until the 92nd minute when Drogba, put it over the keeper from a tight angle to stretch our opening day wins to eight.
In a nutshell then, it was a predictably gritty performance from Hull but with 27 shots to Hull’s 6, Chelsea really should’ve done better.
TEAMS
CHELSEA: Cech, Bosingwa, Terry, Carvalho, A Cole, Mikel (Ballack, 46), Essien, Malouda (Deco, 69), Lampard, Drogba, Anelka (Kalou, 79).
HULL: Myhill, Mendy (Geovanni, 78), Turner, Gardner, Dawson, Marney (Barmby, 44), Olofijani, Mouyokolo, Boateng, Hunt (Ghilas, 69), Folan
GOALS
CHELSEA: Drogba 37, 90+2
HULL: Hunt, 28
Blue is the colour
