Strike 7,490 Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 Chelsea host Hull at tea time on Saturday looking to bounce back from their first league defeat of the season and get their title charge back on track. The Blues were brought crashing back down to earth in last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at Newcastle. With the invincible talk over and done with, Chelsea will be looking to extend their lead at the top after Manchester City cut it down to 3 pointsHull, on the other hand, are struggling. Languishing in the relegation zone, they’ve won just once since the opening day of the season and have scored just twice in their last six games. If Jose Mourinho could pick an opponent to face this weekend, it would probably be Hull.It’s the start of a typically busy Christmas schedule and Chelsea head into it on top of the table. However with 5 points dropped in the last 3 matches, Chelsea can ill afford any more slip-ups especially with Manchester City catching up to Chelsea’s coat tails.Venue: Stamford Bridge Date: Saturday 13-12-2014 Kick off: 1500 GMTTeam NewsCesc Fabregas, with 11 assists already, has been an influential figure in Chelsea’s campaign so far but Mourinho will have to do without him tonight as he serves a one game suspension.Petr Cech is set to make his first Premier League start of the season after Thibaut Courtois suffered a minor injury in training. Nemanja Matic returns from a domestic suspension.Eden Hazard, Willian and John Terry could all return to the starting eleven after they sat out the midweek Champions League tie against Sporting.Gaston Ramirez has completed a 3 game ban and is available for selection. So is Nikica Jelavic after he only made the bench last weekend returning from injury.Teams (Probables)Chelsea : Cech – Ivanovic Cahill Terry Azpilicueta – Matic Ramires Oscar – Hazard Willian CostaHull – McGregor – El Mohamady -Dawson Chester Davies - Rosenior – Huddlestone Meyler Livermore – Jelavic HernandezForm GuideChelsea - WLWDWHull – DDLLLLast meetingHull 0-2 Chelsea (Hazard, Torres)Stats and FactsChelsea's defeat by Newcastle last weekend was their first in 18 Premier League matches.Jose Mourinho's side have kept 12 clean sheets in their last 15 home matches in the league.Hull have gone eight matches without a league victory and only won one of their last 14.Allan McGregor has saved all three of the penalties he has faced in the Premier League - no goalkeeper has ever saved four consecutive penalties in the competition.Match CoverageAustralia: Fox Sports 4 AustraliaUSA: NBCSN Middle East: beIN SportClick Here To View Article Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jase 43,479 Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 *bump* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurlyHairLikeLuiz 1,625 Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 I'd like to see Dave rested in favour of Luis who will give us much needed width against what I reckon will be another Newcastle style penalty box packer team, as well as Schurrle again who has a nice RW strike, who is good for this sort of team.Finally, surely Costa would play in a centre of a 4-3-3? (RW-Costa-Hazard)My bench prediction:Schwarzer, Drogba, Remy, Mikel, Willian, Dave, Zouma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzchap 8,966 Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 Nice work Strike - good article Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHOULO19 24,332 Posted December 13, 2014 Share Posted December 13, 2014 Hull have never won at the bridge in the PL so I'm going for a 3-0 win like against Tottenham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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