What is it about Hull City eh? We play them and I’m struck down with Tourette’s – or at least that’s how it seems because if there’s a fixture this season that’s provoked an involuntary (and apparently uncontrollable) repetition of the phrase ‘for f*** sake’ – this is it!
I mean seriously, top of the table with a game in hand – and not just any game in hand, this is a game in hand the opposition actually thought could do them damage – the chance to put daylight between us and second place, and the best we could manage was a draw? Do our players seriously want to win another title or what? Because they didn’t bloody look as if they did last night. How many more points can we afford to lose in these away games?
Where was the hunger? In fact, sod the hunger, where was the passing? Did we really forget you actually need to keep hold of the bloody ball? As a word on its own, ‘sloppy’ doesn’t even cover it. And what worried me more was that I couldn’t decide whether we were just casual (see arrogant in oppositional terms) or bottled it, but either way it cost us what could be three decisive points. I’m sure United have their silver polish out already.
I have to give credit to Hull, who probably had their best game of the season but even then, as ever we had enough chances to see them off. Lampard saw his first effort parried away by Myhill inside ten minutes before Anelka sliced his wide. 25 minutes in Deco played a lovely ball out to Ivanovic on the right who whipped it in for Ballack although unfortunately for us, the flying German’s header was an easy take for Myhill.
Hull weren’t scared to come at us though and whilst it was nice to see Steven Hunt get his fair share of hassle, he was clearly irritating Ivanovic and after several tickings off, it was a foul on Altidore that eventually got Branisav a yellow. Before the dust even had time to settle, Hull had us a goal behind with Hunt’s corner headed in by Mouyokolo on the half hour. No more than the wake up call we deserved although as it turned out, we’d hit the snooze button.
Oh of course Didier Drogba – who I have my suspicions may have nipped off for a bit when we weren’t looking (such was his impact in the first half) – popped up to drill home a free-kick on 42 minutes but even that didn’t ever get us fully alert. Gardner even came close to putting Hull back in front before the break but let us off when he headed over from a couple of yards.
Back from the break and John Terry managed to get himself a yellow for getting a little up close and personal (cue headlines) and it almost cost us, with Hunt crossing in for the unmarked Altidore who didn’t quite catch it right with his head. In truth, Ivanovic was lucky not to get a second yellow when he clinically blocked Boateng and Carvalho’s heavy challenge on Altidore was deemed acceptable by Clattenburg, so it’s probably fair to say the ref wasn’t as swayed by recent media coverage as the crowd appeared to be.
Again, we had our chances to take the points, with both Didier Drogba and John Terry forcing Myhill into action but there just didn’t ever seem to be enough conviction in our play and our defending of set-pieces just seemed to hang over us like a noose in this game.
Joe Cole came on for a weary looking Ballack with around 20 minutes remaining, with Ashley Cole and Daniel Sturridge following ten minutes later for Zhirkov and an out-of-sorts Anelka but despite Sturridge forcing a great save from Myhill in the 90th even a triple substitution couldn’t change the course of the game.
It just wasn’t enough and from what I could see, we only had ourselves to blame. Whilst Hull seemed to be up our backsides all night, giving nothing up, we gave them a licence to do it. We were sloppy, our passing was off, our communication almost non-existent and we gave them so much space they must have felt agoraphobic at the end of 90 minutes. In fact overall, I’d have to say if this was piece work, they’d have come out of this game minted whilst our players wouldn’t have a pot to p*** in.
So, 1-1 the score and as I’ve said ‘for f*** sake’.
CHELSEA – Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, Carvalho, Zhirkov (A.Cole, 81), Ballack (J.Cole, 71), Deco, Lampard, Anelka (Sturridge, 81), Malouda, Drogba
Unused Subs – Turnbull, Ferreira, Kalou, Alex
GOALS
HULL – Mouyokolo (30)
CHELSEA – Drogba (42)
Blue is the colour
