Chelsea 2 Hull City 1: CARLO ANCELOTTI departed his debut with a punched fist celebration and a comically over-acted expression of relief, all puffed out cheeks and feigned wiping of the brow.
The Italian has grown used to smoking bans inside arenas in Italy and England, but nicotine patches will not make occasions such as these easier to endure. “I don’t smoke before a game, but afterwards,” he said. The body language suggested he needed a post-match puff to ease frayed nerves.
Welcome to life with Chelsea in the Premier League. For Ancelotti this was all new but, for the majority of those present, Saturday’s experience smacked of deja vu. The hosts dominated possession against deep-lying, awkward opponents. They huffed and puffed in their attempts to break Hull City down, lacking the width to penetrate consistently and the invention in the centre to expose stubborn opponents. Then, just as an ignominious opening result beckoned, up popped Didier Drogba to paper over the cracks.
Even the Ivorian’s winner owed much to good fortune, his intended cross drifting over the excellent Boaz Myhill to nestle in the far corner.
Chelsea deserved a flash of luck for peppering the visitors’ goal, but it will not be with them every week. There is considerable quality and experience in this squad, but the same players – none of the three summer arrivals featured – will encounter the same problems. This, more than anything, was a painful reminder as to why the London side’s sporting director, Frank Arnesen, has spent his summer sounding out rival clubs for the likes of Kaka, Franck Ribery, Sergio Aguero and David Villa.
Hull’s game-plan was simple, attempting to cramp Ashley Cole and Jose Bosingwa and thereby denying the home side the width they needed to by-pass the centre. But for Drogba’s fluked winner, and courtesy of some admirably rugged defending from the visitors’ entire back-line and midfield, it would have succeeded.
“I know these kind of games because, in Italy, it is the same,” said Ancelotti. “Small teams defend from midfield and counter-attack. It’s not new for me.”
He does, at least, have a fit and focused Drogba. The striker was at his bullying best and might have plundered at will had Michael Turner and Anthony Gardner not warmed to the contest.
Ancelotti conceded that the forward “has good motivation right now”, and maintaining these standards may be key. His battered free-kick from distance to retrieve a deficit took the breath.
“To win the league you need to win all your home games,” said Drogba. “Especially, you need to beat teams like Hull here. If you don’t, that is how you lose the league.”
Hull had appeared a walkover of a fixture given the Tigers’ previous record of one league win in 22, stretching back to early December. That has now been extended to 23 Premier League games, but there was much here to offer Phil Brown encouragement for the campaign ahead.
An injection of real quality up front, hopefully with the €14 million arrival of Alvaro Negredo from Real Madrid this week, could hoist them from trouble.
For now, the performances of their two new signings, Kamel Ghilas and Stephen Hunt, offered promise. The former Reading winger, booed throughout as a legacy of his inadvertent clash with Petr Cech at the Madejski Stadium in October 2006 which left the goalkeeper with a fractured skull, began life as a Hull player with an ugly high tackle on Frank Lampard within 60 seconds of the kick-off. His opening goal, tapped in calmly after George Boateng’s attempt had rebounded from Mikel John Obi, offered a better glimpse of his talents.
The visitors sunk deeper into defence thereafter, relying heavily on Myhill’s reflexes and Turner’s brawn to keep Chelsea at bay.
Guardian Service
