Portugal’s managerial master and apprentice kicked off their respective Premier League campaigns in rather contrasting style today; there were some similarities though as both Mourinho and AVB faced clashes with newly promoted opposition and both men managed their London clubs to victory but from there on in the similarities ended.
Let’s kick off with the Special/Happy One shall we as Jose Mourinho got his second stint as Chelsea manager off to a flying start with a very convincing win over Steve Bruce’s Hull City. One may have wondered whether or not Mourinho still had the Midas’ touch as far as management is concerned considering he lost the dressing room in his last job with Real Madrid and whether or not Hull would be able to break Chelsea’s astounding home record under Jose Mourinho but those concerns were allayed instantly as Chelsea dominated from start to finish. Chants of “stand up for the Special One” echoed around Stamford Bridge throughout the opening exchanges and the Blues fans had plenty more to cheer about from there on in as Hull struggled particularly to deal with the pace of Oscar and Eden Hazard which ultimately led to the opening goal being scored after a mere 13 minutes. Allan McGregor had some amount of success in keeping the deficit to a bare minimum but not much could be done about the first goal whereas absolutely nothing could be done about the second as Frank Lampard rifled a 35-yard free-kick into the top corner. McGregor could have done better with his attempted save probably but let nothing be taken away from Lampard on this one; the dip and swerve coupled with the venom that this particular effort was struck with would have caught out any keeper in the world – Cristiano Ronaldo-esque is how I’d describe it. Chelsea in total amassed 23 shots on goal and to be honest they should have had a lot more, they definitely should have converted more but the sharpness wasn’t quite there on the day. Despite the result, Hull should be encouraged by their defensive performance because the result could have easily been much worse for them.
Andre Villas Boas’ side’s league campaign kicked off with a London derby as Tottenham travelled to Crystal Palace however whereas Hull were unable to stop Chelsea’s slick play, Palace were right on top of the Tottenham threat for the majority of the game and gave last season’s fifth placed team a real run for their money. Gylfi Sigurdsson and Moussa Dembele had the pick of the chances for Spurs early on but even those efforts were from relatively long range and were only slightly troublesome to Speroni in the Palace goal. However as the game wore on, Spurs’ new hitman, Roberto Soldado became more involved in proceedings and, together with Aaron Lennon, caused Palace a lot of problems to the point that Spurs were awarded a penalty for handball. Soldado converted comfortably to notch a debut goal and that proved just enough to seal the win on the day for Tottenham.
Check back in with us tomorrow night for a full match report on Manchester City’s opening league fixture against Newcastle United!
Results:-
Chelsea 2 – 0 Hull City
Crystal Palace 0 – 1 Tottenham Hotspur