Hull City 0
Chelsea 2
Willian 61’, Costa 67’
Man of the match Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
HULL // Last week, Antonio Conte declared Chelsea were a great team on paper, but not on the pitch. On Saturday, they were a resoundingly mediocre outfit in the first half and a rather impressive one in the second.
Their search for an identity continues. A group who seemed devoid of energy, with the notable exception of N’Golo Kante, and incision, apart from the classy Eden Hazard, were transformed into a forceful, physical unit, seemingly by Conte’s half-time words.
Willian and Diego Costa delivered the subsequent goals. After successive league losses, Chelsea had succeeded in claiming a first league win since August.
“After two defeats, never is it easy,” Conte said. Another transformational statistic caught his eye. “We finished with a clean sheet,” he said. “It is not normal for us. In the last four games we conceded two or three goals [every time].”
This time they scored two. The eventual verdict may be that Chelsea are moving forward, yet they had seemed stuck in quicksand for swathes of the first half, playing with the hesitancy of a team scarred by their evisceration at Arsenal and the unfamiliarity of a group pressed into a different shape.
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In one respect, they were more recognisable as a Conte side: they played with three central defenders. Indeed, his determination to field a formation that he employed with Juventus and Italy was such that Victor Moses was pressed into service as an emergency wing-back. With Cesar Azpilicueta playing centre-back, Chelsea seemed to have square pegs in round holes.
It underlines the extent to which Conte did not get his preferred players in the transfer window.
Moses was understandably unconvincing, wondering where to position himself and invariably erring on the side of caution. As one of two defensive midfielders, Kante took the opportunity to surge forward. Perhaps he got into the final third too often, contriving to sky a shot and miss an open goal after Costa had hit the post, albeit from the Frenchman’s penetrative pass.
Alongside him Nemanja Matic lumbered around, looking likely to join Cesc Fabregas and Branislav Ivanovic among the players Conte has dropped, before rousing himself to set up Costa’s strike with a blockbusting run that felt a throwback to happier times.
Unimpressive and decisive in the space of the same game, Matic personified Chelsea while Costa’s sixth goal in seven league matches was dispatched with an emphatic thump. Six minutes earlier, Willian found almost the same spot in the Hull net after a driving run from Costa. Chelsea profited when they ran with the ball. It was something only Hazard did from the start, and it was how he almost broke the deadlock, with a slaloming solo run and a fizzing shot that tested David Marshall.
It was a sign Chelsea were stirring after an otherwise uneventful first half. That was bookended by fine saves from Thibaut Courtois, who repelled Robert Snodgrass’s deflected free kick and Ryan Mason’s stinging drive. Yet they were the only alarms and Conte’s reconfigured rearguard kept a welcome clean sheet, albeit with their defensive credentials scarcely tested.
“We had to be more compact,” the pleased Italian said. “We were able to defend very high.”
Meanwhile, Hull are slipping lower. They have now lost three in a row, conceding 11 goals. “We’re not playing Mickey Mouse teams here,” said caretaker-manager Mike Phelan, whose side had been beaten by Arsenal and Liverpool.
They are Chelsea’s peers and they produced statements in performances against Hull. Each claimed three points, but Chelsea did it in the most enigmatic fashion.
Contenders or pretenders, a side addressing problems by exiling stalwarts or stumbling through transition, which is the real Chelsea?
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