Hull City 2-0

Guardian:

Diego Costa on target as Chelsea extend lead to eight points with win over Hull

Chelsea 2 - 0 Hull

Dominic Fifield at Stamford Bridge

For a figure as volatile as Diego Costa, there was something distinctly predictable about all of this. The Chelsea striker had been offered an immediate return to the starting lineup after an unsettling period disrupted by lower back spasms and Chinese whispers, and ultimately that absence at Leicester last weekend. Yet here he was departing four minutes from time with the majority in this arena chorusing his name, to be greeted by a thumped hand clap from Antonio Conte on the touchline, as the man who had paved the way for an eight-point lead at the top. His scriptwriters should take a bow.

Chelsea have no interest in selling their leading scorer this month, whether Tianjin Quanjian or any of their Chinese Super League rivals are tempted to offer £80m, £100m or indeed £150m for his services. His long-term future will have to be properly addressed with the player and his agent, Jorge Mendes, in the summer, of course, but for now reintegration already feels almost complete unless those back pains return with a vengeance. The forward was at his committed best here, working feverishly whether leading the line or dropping deep to assist his team-mates. He played the role of “Costa the manager’s dream”, as he has done almost all season, to perfection.


Hull will take heart from their rugged resistance as they contemplate their ongoing battle against relegation, and could justifiably bemoan the non-award of a penalty for Marcos Alonso’s foul on Abel Hernández when their deficit was only one, but this was always going to be the Spain forward’s day. “People were asking me about his form, his attitude, and I said I would always take the best decision for the team,” said Conte. “I think, after this performance, I did make the best decision. The most important thing for us was for him to answer on the pitch.” Costa undoubtedly did just that.

His decisive intervention had actually come almost eight minutes into stoppage time at the end of an otherwise frustrating first half. Chelsea, for all their monopoly of possession, had run aground too often on Marco Silva’s well-drilled ranks with Hull’s resolve undisturbed even by the loss of Ryan Mason after a sickening clash of heads with Gary Cahill just after the quarter-hour mark. The former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder, a Chelsea supporter as a child, had received oxygen while lying prone on the turf undergoing treatment from members of both clubs’ medical staff. He departed on a stretcher and was rushed to the acute care unit at St Mary’s Hospital where he underwent surgery on Sunday evening having suffered a fractured skull. His recovery is Hull’s true priority.


Hull had reorganised impressively enough, only to be prised apart just as they were contemplating the break, and bemoaning the lack of a free-kick for Cahill’s tug back on Hernández. Victor Moses squeezed space away from Andy Robertson down the flank and pulled his centre back across the muddle of bodies in the six-yard box. Costa had held himself slightly back, easing himself away from Harry Maguire, and connected truly.

His side-foot shot flew in off Eldin Jakupovic’s left boot for a 15th league goal of the term. The celebrations, pinching thumb and fingers together with his hands lifted to his ears, presumably suggested there had been too much chat around the events of the last fortnight.


Such is the improvement in this Hull team under Silva that this was never a stroll thereafter, with the trip on Hernández surely worthy of a spot-kick had it been spied by the referee Neil Swarbrick or his assistant. Yet, while the impressive, marauding Maguire tested Thibaut Courtois from close range and long distance, the visitors finally yielded nine minutes from time. The substitute Cesc Fàbregas arced a free-kick into the six-yard box where another replacement, Oumar Niasse, mystifyingly ducked and Sam Clucas dawdled, allowing Cahill a free header from point-blank range. Conte had considered substituting his captain at the interval, such had been the severity of that clash with Mason. He ended up reserving his biggest bear hug of the day for the triumphant centre-back.

That gap from Arsenal in second place already yawns dauntingly wide for the chasing pack, with Chelsea having won 15 of their last 16 games and shed only 11 points all season. No one has been capable of hauling in their sprint to the summit. Their feat in accumulating 55 points after 22 games has been achieved only four times in the Premier League era, with this club contributing two of those eye-catching tallies under José Mourinho over a decade ago, and winning the title each time. Their next two games are against Liverpool and Arsenal, who both beat Chelsea in the autumn.

Emerge unscathed from those contests and it is hard to see anyone overhauling them over the campaign’s final three months, despite Conte’s insistence this division is capable of conjuring an upset. A weekend littered with unexpected results proved that much but Chelsea, bolstered by Costa’s contribution, merely watched others stumble. Their serene progress has been maintained.

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Telegraph:

Chelsea 2 Hull 0: Diego Costa returns to Antonio Conte's team to get Blues back to winning ways

Matt Law

This was the weekend that the Premier League title became Chelsea’s to lose as Antonio Conte’s men extended their lead to eight points and Diego Costa made a goalscoring return to the team.

Only Arsenal’s late winner against Burnley prevented what would have amounted to a perfect 48 hours for Chelsea, who had seen Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Manchester United all drop points.

But, regardless of Arsenal’s three points, Chelsea are looking more and more like champions elect as they secured their 15th victory in 16 Premier League games.

This is only the fourth time a club have amassed 55 points or more after 22 Premier League games and on the two previous occasions Chelsea have, in 2004/05 and 2005/06, they have won the title.

Should the Blues come through their next two Premier League games against Liverpool and Arsenal unscathed then there will surely be no stopping Conte’s relentless side.

They were a long way from their best against relegation battlers Hull City but, unlike many of their rivals, Chelsea have the ability to grind out victories when they are tested.

Conte’s men also keep clean sheets. This was their 13th of the season and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois was busier than many people would have predicted.

The Chelsea fans like to sing about the magic hat of Cesc Fabregas, but it was the magic touch of Conte that was once again evident against Hull.

His handling of the Costa situation proved to be spot on, as the striker marked his 100th appearance with a vital goal and, at least for now, drew a line under the bust-up over a back injury and a lucrative offer from China that had seen him miss the victory over Leicester City.


Aside from getting his Costa decision right, Conte made the perfect substitution late on when Chelsea were under pressure, as he sent on Fabregas and the midfielder provided the free-kick from which Gary Cahill headed the second goal.

All the pre-match attention had focused on Costa, who quickly demonstrated that his back was feeling just fine with a volley that bounced narrowly wide after just 10 seconds.

The Stamford Bridge crowd had reacted positively to Costa’s name when it was read out before kick-off and they used a break in play following a clash of heads between Cahill and Ryan Mason to reaffirm their support for the club’s top scorer.

Costa waved back as his name was chanted and medics administered oxygen to Mason, who left the pitch on a stretcher after eight minutes of treatment.


David Meyler replaced Mason, who was taken to St Mary’s Hospital for further treatment and tests, and it was during the nine minutes of time added on largely for his injury that Costa put Chelsea ahead.

In the seventh minute of injury-time, Marcos Alonso swept the ball out to Victor Moses on the right whose low cross was side-footed into the net by Costa while Hull were complaining about a Cahill foul on Abel Hernández. Responding to over a week of stories regarding his row and Leicester no-show, Costa celebrated by making a talking gesture into both ears.

He clearly likes to be the centre of attention and Conte will hope all the talk is now about the 28-year-old’s goals for the remainder of the campaign. Before Costa’s opener, the impressive Harry Maguire had gone close for Hull. First, he headed straight at Courtois from a corner and the Belgian did even better to push a shot from the defender around the post.


Curtis Davies was perhaps lucky to come out for the second half, having escaped a second booking for a foul on Pedro towards the end of the first period.

Chelsea were even more fortunate that a penalty was not awarded against them four minutes after the restart when Alonso clearly clipped the heel of Hernandez, but the protests of Hull manager Marco Silva were ignored by referee Neil Swarbrick.

Meyler then forced Courtois into a low save with a powerful driven shot as Hull started the second half brightly. Davies did come off on the hour mark with an injury, as Silva replaced the defender with on-loan striker Oumar Niasse in an attempt to find an equaliser.


With Chelsea failing to keep the ball and inviting pressure on to themselves, an increasingly frustrated Conte made two changes of his own by sending on Fabregas and Willian.

The double switch paid dividends with 10 minutes remaining, as Fabregas sent in a free-kick from the left that Cahill headed past Eldin Jakupovic to secure another valuable win.

Conte, as he always does, celebrated wildly, but Silva will not have been quite so impressed with the impact of his own substitute Niasse, who had ducked under the set piece of Fabregas to gift Cahill what amounted to a free header.

Costa should have extended Chelsea’s advantage even further when he was sent through by Fabregas, but the Spain international could not beat Jakupovic and left to a standing ovation when he was replaced by Michy Batshuayi.

Conte’s rivals will be wondering if he will ever make a wrong call over the remaining months of the season. It may already be too late for them, even if he does.


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Mail:

Chelsea 2-0 Hull City:

Ryan Mason's sickening head injury puts Diego Costa comeback into perspective as Tigers midfielder undergoes surgery

By MARTIN SAMUEL FOR THE DAILY MAIL


Late on Sunday night, as the news began filtering out from St Mary’s hospital in Paddington, a lot of the events around the game between Chelsea and Hull, incidents that seemed so important at the time, ceased to matter.

Diego Costa’s return; Diego Costa’s goal; the suggestion of a foul in the build-up to it; whether Hull should have had a penalty; whether Curtis Davies deserved a second yellow card.

All of the pre-match bluster generated by headlines and speculation, all of the post-match bluster that is the work of replays and analysis, suddenly it was all white noise. In a London operating theatre, the Hull City midfield player, Ryan Mason, 25, was having surgery.

Details were sketchy. A fractured skull certainly, treated by an emergency operation. Those who are familiar with similar incidents in sport, mainly in boxing, instantly recognised a dreadful pattern. With head trauma, operations are often performed to reduce swelling, as the brain begins to press on the skull.

Those who were at Stamford Bridge recalled the gesture Hull medical staff made, when informing coach Marco Silva of the damage. They pointed to the temple. They pointed to the part of the head everyone knows to be most vulnerable.

Gary Cahill, the Chelsea captain and an England team-mate of Mason’s, was lucky. Photographs of the incident show that when, in the 13th minute, the players clashed, it was the hard part of Cahill’s skull, the forehead, that took the brunt of the impact. Mason was horribly unfortunate. Cahill had hit him on the right side, towards the front.

It was a ferocious aerial contest, too. Hull defending, Chelsea attacking. Mason felt the force Cahill had intended for the ball. His neck was extended, his head already following through on a downwards motion. Cahill scored with a header later in the game and the ball went into the goal at a mighty speed. That is the blow that was delivered to Mason’s head.

So Cahill was shocked into collapse, too. He received treatment but, thankfully, was ready to resume. Something in the urgency with which the Hull players summoned medical assistance for their man, however, immediately suggested Mason’s problem was more serious. He did not get up.


Then it was Chelsea's turn to benefit. Marcos Alonso clearly fouled Abel Hernandez inside the penalty area but Swarbrick waved play on.

While Cahill waited patiently on the touchline for play to resume and to be a part of it again, medics worked for close to 10 minutes on Mason. He seemed to regain consciousness at one time, but that has been the case with boxers who have suffered significant trauma, too.

Finally, after a lengthy delay, Mason was removed on a stretcher, receiving oxygen, and immediately taken to hospital.

The rest of the game was played out as normal, the press conferences and inquests focused on events that seem so trivial now. Reports were filed that gave as much prominence to the injury-time consequences of Mason’s treatment — a period in which Chelsea scored — as the injury itself.

And then Hull confirmed some of the more worrying rumours late into the night, and a terrible pall was cast over the game, regardless of its outcome.

That Mason is currently in a stable condition is promising and the initial statement from his club talked of remaining in hospital for a few days but that, like so much else right now, is speculation. What is likely, however, is that we have not heard the last of this, with concussion such an issue for sport and Chelsea manager Antonio Conte making an ambiguous statement about Cahill’s physical condition.

‘It was a bad accident with Gary and, I must be honest, after the first half also Gary wasn’t really good,’ Conte said. ‘He decided to continue the game.’

Should that really have been Cahill’s call, as brave as it was? We imagined, seeing him itching to return, then scoring an 80th-minute header that clinched the game, that he had suffered no ill effects. To then hear that he, too, may have suffered a head injury was worrying. Should he not have come off as a precaution? Where are the doctors in this? How did Cahill, a layman, get to decide?  

Footballers are immensely courageous, despite the rotten press they get over diving and simulation. It is easy to paint them as fainthearts compared to the big beasts of a sport such as rugby, yet the collision between Mason and Cahill shows what is at stake.

There was no foul intended by either side, nothing underhand or dubious. It was an honest challenge, no quarter given, and there are a hundred of them in any game.

That it had such desperate consequences for Mason, a typically hard-working midfielder who became the most expensive player in Hull’s history this summer, illustrates the dangers only too well.

He will have seen nothing exceptional in that challenge as he went into it, nothing unusual, no reason to be afraid. It was just one of those things, yet it has made all of the other things that go into making a football match seem meaningless.

For there was a game at Stamford Bridge and as it could go towards deciding the league title, not to mention issues of relegation, it is only respectful towards the players — including the stricken Mason — that we record it.

What the talk would have been about, before the dismal medical bulletin was confirmed, was the return of Costa to the Chelsea team — and the latest goal scored in a Premier League first half since precise times began to be detailed, 11 years ago.

Due to the time added on for Mason’s treatment, Costa scored in the 51st minute and 35th second of the first half. One had the feeling that if anyone was going to do something out of the ordinary in this match, it was him. This was his time to tell his team-mates, his manager and the Stamford Bridge faithful what the short-term future would hold. Was it his intention to sulk his way through all that remained of the 2016-17 season, or was he going to play ball and help steer Chelsea towards another title?

The answer came after 10 seconds. Costa burst through, as he does, with a shot that flashed just wide. It was a signal of intent. I’m back, and I’m for real. So, having been denied one of the most memorably early goals of the season, he settled instead for one of the most memorably late. It was as if everyone was waiting for something special from Costa. ‘The Guv’nor’ as one Stamford Bridge banner has it. And when he fancies it, he is.

So Costa made the most of the bonus minutes. Victor Moses hit a fizzer of a cross from the right, a few missed it, Costa did not. First time, into the corner. He ran away making mocking chirping motions with his hands, a riposte to those who had speculated about rows, tantrums, China and possible exile under Conte. Blah, blah, blah, he seemed to say.

But there was a problem with the player and Conte could easily have resented the disruption to a smoothly running season. Chelsea’s coach, however, is too smart for that. He knows his best team and once Costa got over his latest mood — and maybe even noticed Chelsea kept winning 3-0 without him — there was no question of exemplary punishment.

Quite possibly Chelsea could have beaten Hull another way, without their striker but if Costa was available for selection again, why would they need to? What point was there to prove? The fans sang Costa’s name, and Conte’s, too. Everyone was happy.

When Costa finally left the field after 86 minutes it was to adulation from the paying customers, and an enthusiastic handshake and pat on the back from his boss. All is well at Chelsea; meaning it isn’t elsewhere.

The fans sang Costa's name, and Conte's, too. Everyone was happy. When Costa finally left the field after 86 minutes it was to adulation from the paying customers, and an enthusiastic handshake and pat on the back from his boss. All is well at Chelsea; meaning it isn't elsewhere.

Hull were a handful, and maybe could have had a second-half penalty when Marcos Alonso fouled Abel Hernandez, but with 10 minutes remaining, Chelsea got the job done. Willian was brought down clumsily on the left, and from the free-kick Cesc Fabregas planted one on the head of Cahill at the far post. Fabregas is now behind only Ryan Giggs and Frank Lampard for Premier League assists — one more and he ties Lampard, too. Not bad for a player who spent some of his best years in Spain.

In purely football terms, this has been a good weekend for Chelsea, and they played like a team that know they only have to keep the rest at arm's length between now and the end of the season. They are eight points clear with talk of discontent banished.

Not that it matters much now; but it will one day.


CHELSEA (3-4-3): Courtois 6.5, Azpilicueta 6, Luiz 6.5, Cahill 6.5, Moses 7.5, Kante 6, Matic 5, Alonso 7, Pedro 5.5 (Willian 6.5, 71 mins), Costa 7.5 (Batshuayi 87), Hazard 5.5 (Fabregas 6.5, 71)
Subs not used: Begovic, Zouma, Ake, Chalobah
Goals: Costa 45+7, Cahill 81
Booked: Kante
Manager: Antonio Conte 6.5

HULL CITY (3-5-1-1): Jakupovic 7, Maguire 8, Dawson 7.5, Davies 6.5 (Niasse 6, 59), Elabdellaoui 6, Mason 6 (Meyler 6, 21), Huddlestone 7.5, Clucas 5.5, Robertson 6, Evandro 5.5, Hernandez 6 (Diomande 5.5, 75)
Subs not used: Maloney, Marshall, Tymon, Bowen
Booked: Davies, Dawson, Robertson
Manager: Marco Silva 7

Man of the match: Harry Maguire
Referee: Neil Swarbrick 5
Attendance: 41,605
Ratings by Oliver Todd




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