Chelsea v Hull City preview

Chelsea start the season in a game that looks easy on paper, and after the draw last week against Man Utd giving them match sharpness, the Blues are looking good to start the season in style.

Looking at Hull’s results towards the end of last season you can see how lucky they were to hang on to their Premiership status, despite having a great start to the season. Phil Brown will be hoping his fresh squad can repeat that feat this season. They have strengthened the team lately, and yesterday’s arrival of Stephen Hunt from Reading and the Algerian striker Kamel Ghilas will give them a boost. They are also trying to buy another striker Alvaro Negredo, who had such a great season in Spain last year.

Other new additions to the squad are defender Steven Mouyokolo, midfielder Seyi Olofinjana and striker Jozy Altidore, but they will be relying on teamwork to have an effect on Chelsea, as player-for-player they are not in the same league really.

Hull have had a poor pre-season and last Sunday, while Chelsea came so close to beating Premiership Champions Man Utd, Hull were losing 1-0 at home to Aberdeen, following a 0-0 draw with Sheff Weds. Results like that are certainly not going to instil confidence in their supporters.

Chelsea are waiting to see if their new signing Yuri Zhirkov will have recovered from his knee injury which is holding up his debut, but with Malouda in such fine form, the Russian may not find it easy to break into the team just yet. The Blues will be playing the new diamond formation in midfield behind the attacking duo Drogba and Anelka. With Lampard just behind them, they will be a formidable strike force when they find their scoring boots.

John Terry will be leading the team from the back, and with a very settled squad and a still unbeaten run under Carlo Ancelotti, Chelsea will be raring to get a good start under their belts and will be playing entertaining attacking football.

I envisage a lively game and expect Hull to be overwhelmed but Chelsea may not yet have settled into the new system completely so i will predict a home win, but only by a couple of goals.