Hull City 4-0

Telegraph:

Chelsea 4 Hull City 0: Olivier Giroud off the mark for Blues as striker bags his first goal in FA Cup stroll

Sam Wallace

It will be Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and others at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday but for the warm-up act it was a struggling Hull City from the Championship fielding a makeshift team in an FA Cup fifth-round tie that was over within half an hour for Antonio Conte’s team.

This was not a great night for the Cup, especially when Nigel Adkins made seven changes from his previous Championship team and a side already suffering around 12 injuries and ineligible players were taken apart with four Chelsea goals in the first half. You only need to know that two of Adkins’ regular back four are Chelsea loanees Michael Hector and Ola Aina, both unable to play in this tie, and a third Chelsea man Fiyako Tomori was also absent for the same reason.

There was a first Chelsea goal for Olivier Giroud since his arrival from Arsenal last month, and there were moments when the Brazilian Willian gave Hull a reminder of what the quality was like in the Premier League – including a goal within 106 seconds of the kick-off. Willian scored twice before half-time and there was another from Pedro, with Hull looking every inch a team who were trying to get in and out of west London with the minimum of embarrassment.

Conte gave a debut to his other January signing, the left-back Emerson Palmieri from Roma, and later he brought on another debutant, Kyle Scott, a 20 year-old from the academy who has largely been making up the numbers in the first-team training sessions. There were two 17 year-olds on the pitch for Chelsea in the second half, with Ethan Ampadu starting the game at the centre of a three-man defence and Callum Hudson-Odoi, the academy’s latest hot prospect, a replacement for Pedro.

Willian’s performance has given Conte reason to consider his line-up for Tuesday’s Champions League round of 16 first leg, with the Chelsea manager admitting. “I'm very happy. Before an important game, against Barcelona, tonight I go to my house with many doubts in my mind, which is the best starting XI to start the game against Barcelona. But it's right to be so. We must take the right time to make the best decision to pick the best XI to start that game.”

A very different Hull team had unexpectedly beaten Nottingham Forest at the City Ground the previous Saturday but with a Championship game against Middlesbrough awaiting on Tuesday, Adkins was a manager with a lot of injuries to deal with and priorities elsewhere.

He was without his top goalscorer Jarrod Bowen who, Adkins said later, might miss Tuesday’s game with a damaged hamstring. “We came with a game-plan,” Adkins said, and admitted that the plan did not make it to the end of the second minute, although his team managed to get through the second half without conceding. “Everyone knew our situation – and within a couple of minutes it goes out of the window. We gifted them the opportunities to score some goals in the first half.

“But, wow, Chelsea have got some good players and counter-attack so quickly. In the second half, fair credit to them [Hull], they gave it a go and we did what we had hoped to do initially.”

The 2014 FA Cup finalists are toppling badly, a point outside the Championship relegation zone and suffering all the familiar symptoms of a club in crisis: an owner desperate to sell, a fanbase in rebellion and a squad patched together. They missed a second-half penalty taken by David Meyler who had been one of those Hull players suffering in their attempts to put a challenge in on Willian in the first half.

It was a brutal first half for Kevin Stewart, previously of Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool, who was guilty of losing possession to Giroud twice for the first and third goals, both scored by Willian. The Brazilian is clearly a cut above anyone on the Hull team and he punctuated the first half with a few moments of great quality, a flick with the instep, and two goals dispatched – one with his left foot and one with his right.

For his first, Willian hit a brilliant shot past David Marshall after Stewart had turned into trouble in midfield. His second goal, and Chelsea’s third, was hit with his right, shaped inside the post after Stewart had again been dispossessed by Giroud.

Between times there was a ball flighted over the top of Hull’s defence by Cesc Fabregas which Pedro took with an immaculate first touch with his right and beat Marshall with his left. The fourth came just before half-time when Meyler had the ball put through his legs by Emerson on the left and Giroud clipped a near-post shot in from the cross for his first Chelsea goal.

There was a penalty for Hull in the second half, conceded without complaint by Fabregas who was far too slow getting across to challenge Harry Wilson, on loan at Hull from Liverpool. The 20 year-old landed awkwardly on his shoulder, and eventually had to go off as a consequence, although not before he had seen Meyler’s penalty saved by Willy Caballero, who got the rebound too.

Alvaro Morata came off the bench to replace Giroud and it will be interesting to see who Conte starts from the pair in the Champions League tie on Tuesday. The Chelsea manager confirmed that Marcos Alonso will be back for that tie. “I consider Barcelona one of the best teams in the world,” Conte said later. “On one side, you must be a bit sad to play against them. But, on the other hand, you must be excited. You have to try and compete with them at this level. It won't be easy, for sure, but we must have the right confidence and then we'll see what happens.”


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Guardian:

Willian takes centre stage as Chelsea turn on style to destroy Hull
Dominic Fifield

Quite what the scouts dispatched from Barcelona to this corner of south-west London, charged with casting their eyes over next week’s opponents, could hope to glean from this mismatch is anyone’s guess.

Chelsea barely broke into a sweat in sweeping aside Hull City to secure their passage into the FA Cup quarter-finals. This was a stroll. Maybe the best the scouting reports might confirm is that the Premier League side will be fresh next week.

The hosts could play out this game with two 17-year-olds and a 20-year-old on debut on the pitch, their progress beyond depleted opponents assured from virtually the first attack of the tie. Willian caught the eye with an effervescent display, conjuring glorious finishes with both feet and striking the outside of a post as the final whistle approached.

It may be that Antonio Conte, serenaded yet again by the home support, opts to leave out the Brazilian on Tuesday with his preference to play Pedro against his former club. The Spaniard was retired at the interval, perhaps offering an insight into the Italian’s thinking. A trickier decision may be whether Álvaro Morata, formerly of Real Madrid and , first choice in a Chelsea team built for the counterattack, starts ahead of Olivier Giroud against the unbeaten leaders of La Liga. The Frenchman was impressive here, albeit against struggling Championship opposition, and played a part in the hosts’ first three goals before improvising the finish at the near post for the fourth after Emerson Palmieri, another debutant, had barged his way through David Meyler to the byline.
Giroud offers an unlikely blend of muscle and subtlety in a front line that, at times of late, has lacked punch.

“It is a relief to have scored but I’ll take a lot of pleasure from what we did on the pitch,” said the forward. “Everything is going in the right direction.”
Morata, in contrast, was peripheral in his latest cameo off the bench, his chances of making a proper impact blunted by the fact this tie had long since been claimed. He remains understandably rusty after his month-long absence with a back injury. “To have a lot of doubt before Barcelona is important,” said Conte, who will have Marcos Alonso fit to return against the Catalans. “I will go home with many doubts in my mind about which is the best starting XI against Barcelona. Playing against Barcelona is a great challenge for us but also the type of game which must give us great enthusiasm.

We must be excited to play against one of the best teams in the world. It won’t be easy, for sure.”
It will be far trickier than Hull. This, in truth, was an occasion devoid of the drama so craved by the FA Cup with any chance of an upset probably wrecked by the reality the visitors had been wounded by injury, suspension and the ineligibility of three players – Ola Aina, Fikayo Tomori and Michael Hector – who are on loan from the hosts. Nigel Adkins’ side are labouring at 21st in the Championship, a point above the cut-off, with Michael Dawson’s return from groin trouble offset by Jarrob Bowen’s untimely absence with a hamstring injury. If this was the best selection Adkins could put out, they still desperately needed a solid start. Instead they trailed after 106 seconds and were confronting humiliation by the break. Their only positive was emerging unscathed through the damage limitation operation of the second half.

They had never really stood a chance from the moment they trailed, such was the gulf between the sides. Hull’s players had quaked in their boots whenever the Premier League champions poured forward in those opening exchanges, with Willian and Pedro dazzling, Cesc Fàbregas offered time to spray passes gloriously from that quarter-back brief, and Giroud’s every contribution unsettling Hull’s panicked players. The imbalance between the teams was evident from the moment Kevin Stewart turned into trouble inside the second minute to be crowded out and dispossessed by Giroud. Willian duly collected the loose ball and curled a sumptuous shot into the top corner.

All the tricks and flicks seemed to pay off thereafter, with Stewart’s display disintegrating and Meyler, a makeshift right-back, ruthlessly exploited whenever Chelsea flew down that flank. It had been Fàbregas’ lofted pass which had split Dawson and Meyler for Pedro, darting in between, to collect and convert with his left foot. Within minutes Stewart had again been outmuscled by Giroud and, with Dawson diving in desperately, Willian wriggled free to curl away a fine shot which kissed the far post and flew in. David Marshall had been slow to react at that attempt but, in truth, he already looked shellshocked. It was to his credit that he brought off saves late on to deny Danny Drinkwater and Davide Zappacosta a fifth.

By then Hull had fluffed their chance at a consolation, Fàbregas’ trip on Harry Wilson having earned the visitors a penalty. True to wretched form, Meyler seemed distracted by the referee’s request to re-spot the ball and Willian’s mischievous muttering in his ear and his shot was pushed away by Willy Caballero. That rather summed up the entire chastening occasion. “No magic, I’m afraid,” said Adkins in his disappointment.

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Mail:

Chelsea 4-0 Hull: Olivier Giroud nets first Blues goal as Willian brace leads Antonio Conte's side into FA Cup quarter-finals with easy win at Stamford Bridge

By Ian Ladyman

It's amazing what the prospect of a game against Barcelona can do for a team.
Admittedly this was a match against what was largely Hull City reserves, a side from the Championship so far out of their depth they may well have arrived clutching buoyancy aids.
Nevertheless, the nervous, anxious Chelsea of recent days and weeks was not visible here. This was different.

Hull were dismantled in a first half that was so complete from a Chelsea point of view that they could have scored double the four goals that they did. That they didn’t score any more in the second period was partly because of an inevitable drop off in tempo and an improved performance from Hull goalkeeper David Marshall.
In midfield the Brazilian Willian and Cesc Fabregas were full of life and artistry. They could not have expressed their interest in Champions League selection next Tuesday any more clearly had they written to their manager and asked for a game.

Meanwhile, there on the touchline – warming up eagerly – was Alvaro Morata, the striker who coach Antonio Conte said recently may miss the rest of the season with injury. With twenty minutes to go, the Spaniard was on. He didn’t do terribly much but at least he was there and the chances are that he will start against Barcelona.
So, with a much greater challenge ahead next week, this was a good night for Chelsea and a desperate one for Nigel Adkins and Hull.

The team from East Riding of Yorkshire did not even fill their modest away allocation and that spoke volumes. With Adkins missing his three Chelsea loan defenders and with other players operating out of position, Hull clearly didn’t feel they could get anything here and neither did their supporters.
This was, it must be said, a peculiar pick for television and won’t do much to advance the argument for further Friday night football.

Nor did this do much to persuade us that the gap between the Premier League and the Championship is doing anything but getting wider. Despite the absence of a host of first team players, Chelsea were technically better by an enormous margin and also physically stronger.
Hull did pull themselves together in the second half and Adkins, an experienced and proud manager, will be grateful for that. At one stage, he must have feared humiliation. Hull even won a penalty but it was typical of their night that they subsequently missed it.

Throughout the night Willian was Hull’s chief tormentor. The South American was superb from the get-go and was still annoying the hell out of the opposition late in the piece when he was denied a hat-trick by the thickness of a post.

He didn’t play in the recent 3-0 win against West Brom but this was a pretty convincing case for future inclusion. It can be a challenge to keep your levels high in a game as straight forward as this but Willian looked as though he had a point to prove. If he did, he made it and then underlined it.
Willian scored in the second minute and that set the tone for himself and for his team. The move began with a Hull mistake and sadly that established a pattern – an ugly one – for the visiting team too.
Midfielder Kevin Stewart it was who lost the ball in a bad area and when Willian took possession, he eased forwards, shifted the ball calmly on to his left foot and curled a lovely shot around Marshall’s left hand and in to the top corner from the edge of the penalty area.

It was a sumptuous moment and Hull didn’t recover until it was too late. Chelsea swamped them territorially in the first half and Willian and Fabregas seemed to pick passes through and over the Hull back four at will.
For a while Chelsea couldn’t score a second goal but this didn’t mean Hull were still in it. They weren’t. The flow of the game was always one way and just because Olivier Giroud and Pedro couldn’t attach adequate finishes to some exquisite supply didn’t indicate that Hull were going to find a way back.
Eventually further goals did arrive and they came in a flurry in the run up to half-time.
Fabregas played Pedro clear with a sumptuous first time ball over the top in the 26th minute and the Chelsea forward controlled it equally well to drive it low past Marshall.

Then Stewart gave the ball away again and watched in horror as Willian beat Marshall with a low shot from 20 yards. For some reason the Hull goalkeeper chose not to dive and it looked on replay as though he thought the shot was going wide. It wasn’t.
Three minutes before the break, Marshall was beaten again as Hull’s world began to truly collapse. Chelsea debutant Emerson did well to find space down the left and when he crossed low, Giroud steered the ball expertly in at the near post with his left foot.

The French centre forward will be relieved to have scored his first Chelsea goal. At times he didn’t quite look to be on the same wave length as some of his team-mates.
Hull’s second half was better and it was a pity for them that David Meyler couldn’t beat Willy Caballero from the penalty spot after Fabregas hacked down Harry Wilson. Chelsea’s reserve goalkeeper saved well to his right and after that both teams traded chances.
But if that hinted at some kind of equality in the second half, the impression was wholly false.  

Chelsea (3-4-3): Caballero 7; Rudiger 6.5, Ampadu 7.5, Cahill 7; Zappacosta 6.5, Fabregas 8 (Scott 62mins, 6.5), Drinkwater 6.5, Emerson 7; Willian 8.5, Giroud 7.5 (Morata 70, 6.5), Pedro 7 (Hudson-Odoi 46, 7).
Subs not used: Eduardo, T.Chalobah, Sterling, Moses.
Booked: Scott
Goal: Willian 2, 32, Pedro 27, Giroud 42.
Manager: Antonio Conte 7.

Hull City (4-3-3): Marshall 6; Meyler 5, Dawson 5, MacDonald 5, Clark 5.5; Evandro 4.5, Stewart 5, Irvine 5.5 (Batty 88); Wilson 6 (Toral 55, 6), Dicko 5.5 (Campbell 72, 5.5), Diomande 5.
Subs not used: McGregor, Grosicki, Keane, Clackstone.
Booked: Stewart, Irvine
Manager: Nigel Adkins 6.

Attendance: 39,591