Hull City 1-1 Chelsea

Last updated : 20 February 2010 By Rick Skelton

After Saturday’s performance, you’d have been forgiven for wondering whether tonight might be the last time we play Chelsea for some time. However a positive, battling and competent Tigers performance must give new heart to even the most pessimistic of fans.

The starting line-up contained only one change from Saturday with Fagan replacing Mendy on the right wing. It was a positive statement from the manager that we were prepared to have a goat Chelsea. It’s a sensible approach because we’ve proven time and again that we can’t defend so we might as well have a go. We defended really well but because we were positive and had plenty of possession, we were never under the constant pressure we have been in some games when we’ve gone with one very lonely front man.

We started well from the off and forced three corners and a free-kick just outside the area in the opening few minutes. Hunt and Altidore looked lively and we moved the ball much better than we did on Saturday. Chelsea weren’t at their best and most of them didn’t look up for a battle with eleven gutsy Tigers. We outplayed them for much of the first half hour, getting the ball forward quickly and getting into good wide areas. Stephen Hunt was flying and skinned Ivanovic three times, the big Serbian lucky to only receive on yellow card for cynically taking Hunt down. Chelsea’s only real effort came from Lampard, a dipping shot that Boaz made a meal off and looked relieve to see Anelka make a bigger hash of trying to convert the rebound. At the other end, we had two further free-kicks that Hunt delivered poorly and another corner. When the fifth corner came on the half hour, I commented that we’d had four corners and three good free-kicks and we’d got nowhere near any of them, other than Anthony Gardner clearing one of them. Hunt whipped the corner into the near post where Steven Mouyokolo burst clear of his marker and nodded a firm header into the net. The crowd went wild, I ate my words (again) and Steven Mouyokolo stole Tim Cahill’s trademark goal celebration and punched the corner flag.

At one-nil, we didn’t appear to be sure whether we should continue to go at them or sit back on the lead. Our play became a bit scrappy and Chelsea moved up a gear but only into second. Ivanovic and Zhirkov pushed on from full-back and Hunt and Fagan were forced to defend. We started playing like there were only minutes left, Fagan lashing the ball anywhere when a cool head was called for. We put in a lot of work off the ball and you wondered whether that might come back to haunt us later on. Despite Chelsea’s possession and our passing becoming hurried and panicky, they didn’t create a whole lot, our defence stood up to every ball in. We were a little lucky when a long ball forward found Drogba clear of Gardner with Boaz unsure whether to come out or stay put (he did neither) but the spin on the ball meant it bounced up nicely for Gardner to head back to Bo. Just as we were starting to think about leading at half time, Chelsea were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the box for a late challenge by Boateng. The free-kick was taken by Drogba and hit low and hard towards the far post, the replay on the big screen showing that it started outside the post and curled just inside with Boaz well beaten.

Most teams in our position would have been deflated by the goal but City pushed on again and won a free-kick of our own 30 yards out. Tom Cairney looked set to shoot but instead chipped a delightful ball to the back post where three City players were almost all alone and onside. Anthony Gardner won the race for the ball and from 5 or 6 yards headed wastefully over the bar. He had a tremendous night in defence but boy is he awful in front of goal. Half time followed very shortly after. It was a tremendous half from the tigers, certainly a massive improvement from Saturday. The amount of effort we’d put in off the ball, both when attacking and defending, was worrying as we’d likely run out of steam late on. We’d also lost our way a little in possession, turning down simple, early passes and ending up losing the ball. If we couldn’t keep our cool, we’d struggle to contain Chelsea in the second half, especially if Lampard, Ballack and Anelka bothered to turn up.

It turned out that I needn’t have worried. City started the second half in much the same vein as the first and for 15 minutes looked the only team likely to score. Tom Cairney passed beautifully in the middle. He really is a prospect. I was worried about his lack of pace in his League Cup outings earlier in the season but he plays the game so simply and easily that it doesn’t show up at all. Phil Brown pointed out after Saturday that he has to improve the defensive side of his game which is true but going forward he’s very exciting. His first instinct is always to look forward and he can pick a pass. He’s sometimes guilty of being over-ambitious but generally just plays simple passes and gets himself into a position to collect the ball again. He was involved in two great moves at the start of the half, the first ending with him shooting over after great hold up play from Hesselink and the second ending when Altidore couldn’t get a shot away despite appearing to have a couple of chances to shoot. Altidore had another good game. He’s still a bit raw, his first touch is shaky and he’s also too ambitious at times but he’s getting better and better with his back to goal, he rolls defenders easily and when he gets the ball out of his feet, he’s quick. He bottled a couple of challenges with John Terry in the first half but obviously had his Weetabix at half time because he came out fighting and robbed the stone faced lothario twice in a few minutes. The first one ended with a very popular yellow card for Terry after he hauled down Altidore. A burst through the middle from the big Yank was halted by a challenge form behind by Carvalho. It looked a foul from the East Stand but Mark Clattenburg signaled that Carvalho had nicked the ball away first. To be fair, he was pretty close to it.

We started to tire a little and Chelsea’s sporadic attacks became more frequent. Superb defending meant they were still pretty much limited to long range efforts though there were a couple of penalty box scrambles. Mouyokolo and Gardner won everything in the air while Andy Dawson appeared to have a magnet in his left boot as throughout the game, Chelsea passed straight to him about 15 times. It was probably a combination of good reading of the game and pure luck but regardless, he cut out lots and lots of passes. Amr Zaki replaced big Jan, who’d been pretty anonymous for a while, and put in another fine shift. His quick feet won numerous free-kicks and he showed good strength and vision. He did a tremendous job of finding Fagan in space time and again with good passes across the field but our returning right winger made a pig’s ear of all of them. To cap a pretty wretched game, Fagan also gave away a free-kick, for at least the third time this season, for handball by grabbing the ball in an attempt to con the referee into blowing up for a (non-existent) push in his back. Pure stupidity. As poor as Fagan was in possession, he did get into a good defensive position throughout which quelled the threat of Zhirkov and was probably the reason why he wasn’t replaced.

Bo Myhill was hesitant at times like the aforementioned situation with Drogba and another occasion in the second half when Drogba beat him to a ball chucked into the box (similar to the second Bolton goal) but the ball dropped over. However, he made up for it with a series of superb saves as Chelsea turned the screw in the last 20 minutes. He saved well at his near post, getting down to his right to thwart Drogba. From the resulting corner, he made a tremendous save low to his right to keep out a towering header. John Motson would say it had a bit of the Gordon Banks about it. That was the first of a neat triple save; easily as good as anything he did at Spurs the other week. In stoppage time, he made another smart save down to his left to tip a goal bound shot from Daniel Sturridge around the post.

We were kept on the front foot by Zaki’s strength and the drive from midfield of George Boateng who was absolutely tremendous and kept finding the energy from somewhere to drive forward and then get back to make a massive number of crucial interceptions. Unfortunately, it was George who wasted our best opportunity of the half. He was freed on the right wing by a nice pass from Fagan and as he charged forward, Amr Zaki raced unmarked into the box. George saw him and in his desperation to get the ball in before the Chelsea defenders recovered, over-hit his cross. Late on, Phil Brown made his only negative move of the game, replacing Altidore with Kilbane to make a five in midfield. In his first action, Kilbane failed to control a wonderful reverse pass from Zaki, which would have put him in on goal. Paul McShane was forced off late on when he was cut open by a swinging arm from Drogba. The ref hadn’t really seen it so booked Drogba just in case. He should probably have admitted to not having seen it and let the FA deal with the Ivorian. Zayatte replaced McShane but wasn’t really called upon.

Some superb play from Zaki and Cairney on the left helped wind down the four minutes of stoppage time and one nervous Chelsea corner later the final whistle brought us a well earned, well deserved and perhaps quite precious point.

It was a tremendous team effort and whether or not their play was always good, every player put in an incredible shift. Stephen Hunt looked too exhausted to pass the ball in the last 10 minutes but was still putting in tackles. Everyone contributed to the result. Our agile goalkeeper; the towering centre halves; hard working wide men; big, strong front men and perhaps most importantly, the tremendous pair in the middle who bossed tens of millions of talent in the opposite midfield.

The result was tremendous but hammers home the frustration of football. How can the same set of players fail to beat Wolves on Saturday and then match Chelsea on Tuesday? If Phil Brown can find a way to drag the latter performance out of the boys on a weekly basis then we might just have a chance. Unfortunately, this result will mean nothing if we go and capitulate in upcoming games at Blackburn and West Ham which are games that we simply must get something from. Otherwise the closest we’ll get to the Cole’s, Lampard’s and Terry’s next season will be on the television and the front pages of the Sunday papers.

Ratings: Myhill 7, McShane 6 (Zayatte), Dawson 7, Gardner 8, Mouyokolo 8, Fagan 6, Hunt 7, Cairney 8, Boateng 9, Hesselink 6 (Zaki), Altidore 8 (Kilbane).