Chelsea vs Hull City: Preview

Saturday sees Stamford Bridge as the venue for league leading Chelsea against a struggling Hull City side. With Chelsea coming off the back of their first defeat in all competitions after falling 1-0 to Newcastle last week and Hull playing to a dismal 0-0 draw to West Brom, both teams are coming into the matchup in search of a win. As Man City begin to close in on Chelsea’s lead at the top, Mourinho’s men must maintain a lengthy to streak of positive results in order to keep the Manchester club at bay.

Team News:

Chelsea have continued to impress this season on and off the pitch, off meaning they have managed to keep a relatively healthy squad almost all season. Apart from one or two players every now and then, the team has remained at full strength, helping contribute to the fantastic start. For this weekend, Nathan Ake has recovered from his hamstring injury and returned to first team training in mid-week while Cesc Fabregas will be absent due to an accumulation of five yellow cards. Thibaut Courtois will also miss as he picked up a muscular injury during the week, forcing Mourinho to turn to 3-time Golden Glove winner Petr Cech.

Hull are also fortunate to not have a squad as depleted as most in the Premier League, missing just two players for the weekend’s game. Mohamed Diame has been ruled out until just before Christmas with a knee problem while Robert Snodgrass was ruled out until the end of the season at the beginning of the term. Both sides are almost full strength which will mean a highly-contested game.

Background:

Chelsea won both meetings last season and have dominated the head-to-head with Hull over the years. Blues strikers Didier Drogba and Loic Remy both have scored 3 goals in 3 Premier League meetings with the Tigers. A win for Chelsea would see them maintain a 3 point lead at the top of the Premier League table while a win for Hull could see them climb out of the relegation zone, where they currently sit in 18^th.

Projected Chelsea XI:

Prediction: Chelsea 3-0 Hull City.