After their 3-0 win over Newcastle in the Emirates FA Cup fourth round, Chelsea were drawn against Hull City in the fifth round and we take a look at their last three meetings with the Tigers.
Chelsea 2-0 Hull – 22/01/17
Hull were one of many victims in Chelsea’s domination of the Premier League last season as they were relegated from the top flight. They visited Stamford Bridge in January and managed to keep the champions-elect at bay for large parts of the game. Their resilience was broken in the seventh minute of injury time at the end of the first half as Diego Costa turned the ball into the back of the net from Victor Moses’ low-driven cross.
The reason for the lengthy injury time was because of a nasty head injury to Ryan Mason, who has announced his retirement from playing football this week as a result of the fractured skull he suffered. We would like to take the chance to wish Ryan well in his future endeavours.
The league leaders wrapped up the win in the final ten minutes thanks to Gary Cahill’s towering header from Cesc Fabregas’ whipped free-kick. This victory put Chelsea eight points clear at the Premier League summit with Arsenal being their closest challengers at that stage.
Hull 0-2 Chelsea – 01/10/16
The Blues made sure they weren’t going to make the mistake of underestimating the newly promoted Hull side last term and they came away from the KCOM Stadium with a victory that was made comfortable in the end. After a goalless first-half, Chelsea came alive in the second period and began to put together some free-flowing attractive football against the deep defensive line of the hosts.
Costa was unlucky not to find the back of the net after rounding David Marshall as Jake Livermore came to Hull’s rescue to clear it off the line. The Spaniard then turned provider for Willian, who opened the scoring with a brilliant curling effort from the edge of the box. Before the home side had chance to react, the game was dead and buried with Costa almost recreating the first goal after Nemanja’s Matic blocked shot fell nicely to him. This was the first match that Antonio Conte chose to use three at the back and the rest, as they say, is history.
Hull 2-3 Chelsea – 22/03/15
This was undoubtedly the most entertaining match-up between these two sides in recent meetings in yet another campaign where Hull were condemned to the drop zone and another where Chelsea lifted the title. The hosts made the task of beating the Blues extremely hard in the opening exchanges as they went two goals behind in the first ten minutes. Eden Hazard, who is having a fantastic season, scored within a couple of minutes with a wonderful 25-yard strike before Costa doubled the lead a little more than five minutes later. The high-tempered striker squeezed the ball inside the post from a very tight angle.
Hull hit back with two quickfire goals of their own in the space of just two minutes. Ahmed Elmohamady slotted home from close range before Abel Hernandez pounced on Thibaut Courtois’ awful touch to level the game. Loic Remy came off the bench and saved the day for the league leaders, as he did so many times during that season, with a composed finish from 12 yards. It sent Chelsea six points clear at the top and allowed them to go and win the league. They will be hoping to make it six wins in a row against Hull when the two sides meet on Friday night.
