Hull City vs Chelsea Preview | Team News, Stats and Key Men

On Sunday the 22nd of March, league leaders Chelsea travel to the KC Stadium to take on Hull City.  Despite drawing to Southampton in their last match, Chelsea still have a comfortable lead at the top of the Premier League.  They’ll look at this match as one to get three points from and move closer to their first Premier League title since 2010.  Hull on the other hand are hovering just above the relegation zone.  They’ll be looking at this as a bonus game.  Steve Bruce will have targeted other matches on the fixture list where they can look to get points.  If they get anything from this it will just be a nice bonus.

Team News

Hull City have a lot of injuries to deal with and have been the Tigers’ downfall this season.  They’ll be without Robbie Brady, Liam Rosenior, James Chester, Mohamed Diame, Robert Snodgrass, and Nikica Jelavic will all be out through injury.  They also have to contend with the suspension of Tom Huddlestone after he was sent off against Leicester.

Chelsea on the other hand are only missing John Obi Mikel and have the rest of the squad fit and firing.

Interesting Statistics

• Not to kill all of the hope for Hull, but they’ve never beaten Chelsea.
• The last three times the two sides met the match ended 2-0 to Chelsea.
• In the eight meetings between the two sides, Hull have only scored twice and have never scored more than once.
• Hull have the second best defensive record outside of the top eight.
• Chelsea have only won two out of their last six matches.
• Hull have never scored multiple goals against Chelsea and Chelsea haven’t gone scoreless in a match since November.

Key Men

Hull City: Dame N’Doye

Hull have the joint third lowest goal tally in the Premier League this season and have a tough time scoring goals.  To attempt to help cure this ill, they went out and splashed an undisclosed amount of cash on striker Dame N’Doye.  So far he seems to have been a good investment.  In only four starts the Senegalese international has scored three goals and provided an assist.  He’s been an upgrade on the strikers they had with N’Doye scoring every 135 minutes, Abel Hernandez scoring every 356 minutes, and Nikica Jelavic scoring every 202 minutes.

Chelsea: Diego Costa

After going eight games without a goal, Diego Costa ended his goal drought against Southampton.  Both he and Cesc Fabregas have had a bit of a drop off over the second half of the season, so if Costa can get back to scoring goals it can help Chelsea go through to the end of the season and clinch the title.  Away games are never easy in the Premier League and having a proven goalscorer helps get a side over the line.  Even if a team is expected to win, sometimes you just need that proven goalscorer that can put a half chance in the back of the net and get those crucial three points.

Prediction

I can’t see anything other then a Chelsea win from this one.  It’s the Premier League and anything can happen, as we saw last week with Burnley’s win against Manchester City, but I think Chelsea will come away with the three points.  Hull will put up a good fight, but Jose Mourinho’s men will come away with the three points and edge closer to the title.

Prediction: 2-0 Chelsea

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