hull city 1-1

The Times

Stephen Hunt inspires another unexpected twist in title race

Hull City 1 Chelsea 1

Oliver Kay, Football Correspondent

When Sir Alex Ferguson urged Arsenal to dust themselves down and “batter” Chelsea on Manchester United’s behalf on Sunday, it seemed that even he, a man who surveys his rivals’ fixture list for anything resembling a potential pitfall, did not hold out much hope of an upset at the KC Stadium last night.
This, though, remains a deeply unpredictable campaign and, as Chelsea laboured to a draw against a valiant Hull City, the title race took another unexpected twist — one that will give John Terry something else to worry about, as if the state of his marriage, his fragile grip on the England captaincy and the latest revelations about his personal life were not enough.
Carlo Ancelotti, the Chelsea manager, tried to put on a brave face, calling it “a difficult game and a good result”, but this was one of those occasions this season, like that arduous afternoon away to Wigan Athletic in September, when the Barclays Premier League has lived up to its billing as a competition in which nothing can be taken for granted. More than that, it was a night when it seemed that the word is out among Chelsea’s opponents that Ancelotti’s team are hugely vulnerable at dead-ball situations.
Chelsea scored from a set-piece of their own, Didier Drogba announcing his return from Africa Cup of Nations duty with a splendidly placed free kick just before the interval, but that merely cancelled out the goal scored by Steven Mouyokolo, the first of the French defender’s career.
It came from a corner taken by the excellent Stephen Hunt, more of whom later, and, as Phil Brown, the Hull manager, noted afterwards, it meant that 15 of the 20 goals Chelsea have conceded in the Premier League this season have come from set-pieces. And if Ancelotti will not thank Brown for pointing that out, Ferguson almost certainly will.
Mouyokolo’s goal will have infuriated Ancelotti — and, indeed, Terry — as much as any they have conceded this season. As the net bulged, with Mouyokolo having been left by Michael Ballack to score with a header, Terry gestured that Petr Cech, the goalkeeper, should have taken charge of the situation. He might well have had a point.
Chelsea showed quality at times, Frank Lampard and Nicolas Anelka in particular, but they looked ruffled throughout and, in particular, struggled to handle the threat of Hunt.
The Hull winger will never be the most popular player with the Chelsea squad after his infamous clash with Cech when he was playing for Reading in October 2006, but the way in which he tormented them, whether running at Branislav Ivanovic or whipping in crosses, was something to behold for those home supporters who had feared he would join Wolverhampton Wanderers before the transfer window closed on Monday.
It was all going rather well for Hull, with Hunt on song on the left and Tom Cairney a model of composure in midfield on only his third appearance at senior level, but Boaz Myhill, the goalkeeper, was being called into action a little too frequently for Brown’s liking, diving to his left to keep out shots from Lampard and Anelka. Hull’s defenders had handled the threat of Drogba well, but when Mark Clattenburg awarded a free kick on the edge of the penalty area three minutes before half-time, for George Boateng’s challenge on Anelka, the forward dispatched a low, curling shot that surprised Myhill as it beat him at the far post.
Drogba’s goal seemed to be the cue for Chelsea to take control in the second half, but that was not how it transpired. Within a minute of the restart Terry was shown a yellow card for a cynical tug on Jozy Altidore after the muscular United States forward beat him to a bouncing ball. From the resulting free kick, again whipped in at pace by Hunt, Altidore could feasibly have scored with a header.
The statistics, at least when it comes to passing the ball and creating chances, will show that Chelsea were the better team, but the expected gulf in class was not there. Brown was delighted with Hull’s performance — far more than he had been after they drew their previous home game 2-2 against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday — but there were, inevitably, times when they lived dangerously, with Myhill making important saves from Lampard, Anelka, Drogba and Florent Malouda while still managing at times to spread panic among his defence.
Chelsea could still have won it in stoppage time, with Joe Cole setting up Daniel Sturridge, his fellow substitute, for an ambitious left-foot shot that Myhill beat away, but, unlike at Turf Moor on Saturday, there was to be no late winning goal for Ancelotti’s team — not even from Terry, who found Hull’s defence rather less accommodating than Burnley’s on his regular forays forward.
As Ancelotti said, a team cannot win every time they play, but Chelsea looked flat — certainly in contrast to United’s effervescent performance in beating Arsenal 3-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. Ancelotti will hope for a big improvement when Arsène Wenger’s team visit Stamford Bridge on Sunday, by which time United will expect to have reclaimed top spot, given that they face Portsmouth at Old Trafford the day before.
A footnote: at the end, Terry swapped shirts with Hunt, no doubt sparking talk about whether he had shown disregard for another team-mate, this time Cech, in doing so. It is more tempting to say that it was a reward for Hunt for a performance that epitomised Hull’s effort: tigerish, persistent and, for Chelsea and their captain, bloody irritating.

Hull City (4-4-2): B Myhill — P McShane (sub: K Zayatte, 90min), S Mouyokolo, A Gardner, A Dawson — C Fagan, G Boateng, T Cairney, S Hunt — J Vennegoor of Hesselink (sub: A Zaki, 66), J Altidore (sub: K Kilbane, 85). Substitutes not used: M Duke, B Mendy, N Barmby, Geovanni. Booked: McShane.

Chelsea (4-3-2-1): P Cech — B Ivanovic, R Carvalho, J Terry, Y Zhirkov (sub: A Cole, 81) — Deco, M Ballack (sub: J Cole, 71), F Lampard — N Anelka (sub: D Sturridge, 89), F Malouda — D Drogba. Substitutes not used: R Turnbull, P Ferreira, Alex, S Kalou. Booked: Ivanovic, Terry, Drogba.
Referee: M Clattenburg.

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Telegraph:

Hull City 1 Chelsea 1

By Henry Winter

If John Terry needed any evidence of the depth of contempt for his behaviour he found it here. From first whistle to last, the England captain endured unbelievable haranguing from Hull City fans. As Chelsea dropped two points, Terry’s personal standing around the country plummeted even further and next week’s trip to Goodison Park could be even more brutal.
Although Chelsea could do with this distracting storm passing quickly, this draw cannot be blamed on all the commotion surrounding Terry’s off-field travails. A longer-standing problem saw them fall behind to Steven Mouyokolo’s header at a corner: of the 20 Premier League goals Chelsea have conceded, 15 have now come from set-pieces.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side equalised through Didier Drogba’s free-kick but they never looked a cohesive, consistently threatening unit and could be in second place by the time they play again. Manchester United, currently two points behind, entertain Portsmouth on Saturday before Chelsea host Arsenal 24 hours later. Leadership issues cling to Terry and his team.
"We are in a good position,’’ retorted Ancelotti. "We are top. We know very well that Manchester United are a fantastic opponent. It will be a long race to the end of the season.’’
At the top and bottom. Hull, fighting to stay up and feeding on their fans’ noise, were well worth their point. Stephen Hunt, who has troubled Chelsea and particularly Petr Cech in the past, excelled down the left flank, constantly worrying Branislav Ivanovic. Chelsea’s back-line never looked particularly certain, although Terry was pick of the defensive bunch.
His one mistake came when he was caught out by a Jozy Altidore run, pulling the American down and going into Mark Clattenburg’s book.
Hull’s manager, Phil Brown, voiced some support for the Chelsea centre-half. "John Terry is a great captain,’’ said Brown. "He did well in very adverse circumstances. When you see the coach coming in followed by photographers you realise the immensity of the situation.’’
Ancelotti maintained his sanguine air. Chelsea’s manager refused to confirm whether he had talked to his captain about the controversy but the understanding is that he has. "Nothing can disturb our concentration,’’
Ancelotti stressed. "Chelsea are focused every game. John played a very good game.’’
After Sunday’s match with Arsenal, Terry faces the Gwladys Street glee club on Feb 10 although he is likely to miss the Feb 13 FA Cup fifth-round tie against Cardiff City because he wants to visit his wife and children in Dubai. "If he needs to go on holiday, we will let him,’’ said Ancelotti.
"If he wants to play, he will play.’’
Still the main story in sports-town, Terry had not shown a flicker of emotion as he strode from the Chelsea bus towards the tunnel, his every step attracting a flurry of boos. Inside the KC Stadium, the derision proved far worse. It was not simply every touch of Terry’s that drew catcalls, it was the frequent chants, suggesting all manner of indignities.
This is the problem that the Football Association is allowing to fester: any remaining vestiges of Terry’s authority as an England captain are being shredded around the country. When he was booked early in the second half, the KC Stadium dissolved in delight.
Whatever his lack of self-awareness, Terry has never been short of self-belief and he rarely flinched, his equanimity troubled mainly when Hull took a first-half lead through Mouyokolo. The nerves in the blue ranks had been more evident out wide where Chelsea’s full-backs, Ivanovic and Yuri Zhirkov, were tested by Hunt and Craig Fagan.
Chelsea briefly appeared to settle, Michael Ballack almost scoring with a header from Ivanovic’s excellent cross, but Hull’s confidence was soon reflected in the scoreline. When Hunt bent in a corner from the right, Chelsea’s defence froze. Ballack got underneath the ball, Terry was blocked off by Anthony Gardner and Mouyokolo headed powerfully home. As Hull celebrated, Terry complained that he had been baulked, an argument he was to continue with Clattenburg at half-time.
Chelsea looked vulnerable, lacking their usual organisation. Slowly, they found a semblance of their stride. Florent Malouda was always lively, taking the game to Hull. Nicolas Anelka followed suit, racing at the hosts’ defence. When Anelka was fouled by George Boateng a yard outside the area, Clattenburg played advantage as the ball broke to Lampard, who was promptlybrought down inside the box by Gardner. "Penalty’’ came the scream from the 3,000 Chelsea fans. "Free-kick’’ ruled Clattenburg, strangely taking play back to the offence on Anelka.
No matter. Drogba punished them from 20 yards, exploiting a gap in Hull’s wall to find the back of the net. Hull went apoplectic, claiming that Ricardo Carvalho had sneakily created the hole in the wall. He hadn’t, merely stepping out of the way and Hull’s players failing to respond.
As Drogba raced off to celebrate, Terry sprinted to the Chelsea fans to thank them for their support before running back to his half, throwing a stony stare at his Hull tormentors en route. Throughout the second half, Chelsea pushed for the winner but found Boaz Myhill in defiant form, the keeper denying Drogba, Terry and Daniel Sturridge.

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Guardian:
Gutsy Hull hold John Terry and Chelsea to a 1-1 draw
Hull City 1 Mouyokolo 30 Chelsea 1 Drogba 42
Kevin McCarra at the KC Stadium

Chelsea lead the Premier League by two points, but they no longer look in command of it. The side had won all five of their matches when Didier Drogba was absent at the Africa Cup of Nations, but his return did not extend the sequence. That was no fault of the Ivorian, who provided the equaliser at the KC Stadium, but the visitors never had a pugnacious Hull under complete control.
Sunday's encounter with Arsenal at Stamford Bridge will be all the more intriguing as they strain to keep Manchester United at bay. This was a sporadic display. There was none of the relentless authority that distinguishes them when they are at their most co-ordinated.
Hull take huge credit for that, since they did much more than resist. This was the 11th consecutive game without a win in all competitions for Phil Brown's side, but it felt more like a fresh start. Composed and content as Carlo Ancelotti attempted to appear afterwards, his discomfort was revealed in the decisions he took during the match.
The Italian even took off a muted Nicolas Anelka, who could be considered Chelsea's best player this season, in the hope that the inexperienced Daniel Sturridge might make a difference. The latter did demand a good save from the impressive Boaz Myhill in stoppage time. But for all the goalkeeper's sharp work, Hull had a sense of adventure that was never entirely extinguished.
Their resilience had also to be demonstrated, but the most important show of resistance this week was the rejection of Wolves' £5m bid for Stephen Hunt in the transfer window. The Irishman was composed and dangerous in his work on the flanks. He was involved when Hull took the lead after half an hour.
Hunt's corner from the right was headed in forcefully by Steven Mouyokolo who was aided in scoring his first goal for the club by the lax marking of Michael Ballack. Chelsea's vulnerability at set pieces is turning into a chronic condition. The unease is now reflected in selection and it is no longer clear whether Ricardo Carvalho or Alex is the preferred partner for John Terry in the middle of the defence.
Chelsea, having conceded the opener, were provoked into vigour, but their leveller came in odd circumstances. They appealed for a penalty as Frank Lampard seemed to be brought down, but the referee, Mark Clattenburg, had already blown for a foul on Anelka just outside the 18-yard box. The issue became an irrelevance when Drogba levelled by curling the free-kick round the wall and into the net three minutes before the interval. Hull were adamant that the free-kick ought to have been indirect.
Chelsea were scarcely in disarray when Drogba was busy representing his country in Angola, but the range of his gifts is great and it mattered here when his team at least extracted a point from the fixture. The Ivorian had last appeared for the club on December 28. He could not quite polish off Hull here and the competitiveness was pronounced despite these clubs having so little in common.
In games of this sort the contrast in attitude is as great as that in the fame or affluence of the respective sets of players. For Hull, this type of evening is a major part of the prize for achieving promotion. For the visitors, it was another task to be completed on a long, ambitious programme, even if they did fall short of victory.
Chelsea's perspective was broad enough for Ashley Cole to be named merely among the substitutes. There was not the slightest suggestion that Terry might lose his way in the flurry of headlines over his private life, even if the centre-back was booked at the start of the second half.
The home support had, naturally, remembered to boo each time he took possession, but with little hope of his confidence crumbling. Chelsea, for a while, seemed to have scant doubt about the outcome. There were signs that supported such faith, but Ballack carelessly headed a Branislav Ivanovic cross straight Myhill in the 25th minute.
Hull are not readily deterred. The risk of falling back into the Championship is glaring, but they were galvanised by this occasion. Ancelotti's side experienced enough consternation for Terry to get that yellow card after pulling back the forward Jozy Altidore.
Hull kept the tempo high and Chelsea were not able to dictate terms from midfield for a while. An hour had passed before they gave evidence of the measured style that must have looked ominous to their opponents. The conviction of Hull continued to be remarkable despite the inferiority recorded in their respective League positions. No matter how poor their form has been, Hull have all the morale essential for the battle against relegation.

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Independent :

Drogba to the rescue as Chelsea struggle
Hull City 1 Chelsea 1
By Tim Rich

John Terry always operated on the basis that he was the virtual embodiment of Chelsea Football Club but since the exposure of his affair with the mother of Wayne Bridge's son it has come a step closer. To some this was not Hull versus Chelsea but the second instalment of Terry against the world, which until the issue of the England captaincy is resolved is how it is likely to be.
This game was, however, very much more than that. It was about a side suffering a loss of momentum at the worst time – just after Manchester United had produced a compelling, virtuoso display at the Emirates Stadium and just before Chelsea face Arsenal. A two-point lead with more than three months of the season remaining is not much of an advantage.
It also exploded one of the myths that envelop Stamford Bridge every couple of years – that Chelsea will suffer during the Africa Cup of Nations. For the record, the last time they dropped points while the tournament was in progress was January 2006 when they were held at home by Charlton. Here, no sooner did their reinforcements arrive from Angola than they became the slightly uncertain team away from home that they had been before Didier Drogba and the rest departed.
But for Drogba, who scored his 20th goal of the season, this might have been a fourth away Premier League defeat of the season. Nevertheless, Carlo Ancelotti stated that this was a "good result," and added: "We don't have to be disappointed, Hull put us under a lot of pressure." The Chelsea manager confirmed that if Terry wished to miss the FA Cup tie with Cardiff on Valentine's weekend to be with his wife, who is now sheltering from the media storm in Dubai, that would not be a problem. "If he needs a holiday, I will give him one," Ancelotti said. "If not, he will play."
For a sportsman such as Terry, a football pitch is the one place where his thoughts could be entirely focused on the game. There was no dramatic intervention from him as there had been with his winner at Burnley on Saturday and, generally, the booing and baiting were not as pronounced.
Without the scandal, nobody would have thought it remarkable that at Turf Moor the final song played before kick-off was Bryan Ferry's "Let's Stick Together", with its opening line of "The marriage vow is very sacred". Here, it was the Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen in Love with Someone You Shouldn't Have Fallen in Love With?"
Perhaps the story should not be the public disintegration of Mr Chelsea but the fact that when Steven Mouyokolo slipped clear of his marker Michael Ballack, it was the 15th time out of 20 League goals conceded that the defence he leads has succumbed to a set-piece – this one was a Stephen Hunt corner. It was a statistic Phil Brown, the Hull manager, was perfectly aware of. In first-half stoppage time, it might have been 16 had Anthony Gardner not aimed his header from Tom Cairney's free-kick fractionally too high.
This was a similar task for Ancelotti's men to the one they faced at Burnley; to break down a struggling team who have a good home record. Apart from one defeat by Manchester United, Hull had not lost at the KC Stadium since September.
The Premier League leaders set about it with a grim, if seldom fluid, determination which Hull resisted with a display Brown thought their best of the season, although they were indebted to some fine goalkeeping from Boaz Myhill, who saved a header from Terry among others.
They had led for 12 minutes when referee Mark Clattenburg allowed play on when Nicolas Anelka was fouled on the edge of the area. Frank Lampard was then chopped down inside the box and the referee awarded a free-kick for the first foul on the Frenchman. Drogba stepped up to take it. George Boateng, under the impression the free-kick was indirect, turned his back in the Hull wall with fatal results and suddenly Chelsea seemed more than a team that revolved around their captain's sex life.

Hull City (4-4-2): Myhill; McShane (Zayatte, 90), Mouyokolo, Gardner, Dawson; Fagan, Boateng, Cairney, Hunt; Altidore (Kilbane, 85), Vennegoor of Hesselink (Zaki, 66). Substitutes not used: Duke (gk), Barmby, Geovanni, Mendy.

Chelsea (4-3-1-2): Cech; Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry, Zhirkov (A Cole, 81); Ballack (J Cole, 71), Deco, Lampard; Malouda; Anelka (Sturridge, 81), Drogba. Substitutes not used: Turnbull (gk), Ferreira, Kalou, Alex.

Referee: M Clattenburg (County Durham).
Booked: Hull City McShane; Chelsea Ivanovic, Terry, Drogba.
Man of the match: Cairney.
Attendance: 24,957.