KINGSTON UPON HULL, United Kingdom : Willian and Diego Costa scored twice in six second-half minutes as Chelsea won 2-0 at Hull City on Saturday to claim a first win in four Premier League games.
\nWillian struck in the 61st minute after Chelsea launched one of a series of increasingly dangerous counter-attacks.
\nCosta s pass picked out the Brazilian, who checked, putting his defender out of the game in the process, before curling an unstoppable shot into the top-right corner of the Hull goal.
\nSix minutes later the game was put beyond Hull s reach in similar fashion.
\nHaving powered into the area, Nemanja Matic saw a shot blocked by Curtis Davies, but Costa latched onto the rebound to bend a shot past Hull goalkeeper David Marshall for his sixth goal in seven games.
\nVictory provisionally lifted Chelsea to sixth place in the table and saw Hull drop to 15th.
\nYet Hull had forced Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois into the only two saves of significance in the first half and, in between, gave as good as they got against a club they have not beaten in 28 years.
\nAfter just four minutes, and a David Luiz foul on Dieumerci Mbokani, Robert Snodgrass s terrific 25-yard free-kick forced the Chelsea keeper into a twisting save as he turned the ball over his crossbar.
\nIn first-half injury time, Ryan Mason gathered the ball 25 yards from goal and unleashed a strong shot that Courtois appeared to see late as he forced it behind for a corner.
\nChelsea started with a three-man defence, a tactic adopted by manager Antonio Conte in the second half of last weekend s 3-0 defeat by Arsenal, which meant Branislav Ivanovic lost his place.
\nThe move saw winger Victor Moses make his first start for the club since May 2013 at wing-back, underlining Conte s desperation to end his team s recent run of poor form.
\nWillian looked a lively performer for the visitors as he attempted to spark them into some attacking life and on 16 minutes the Brazilian just missed the far post with a low, driven shot.
\nMoses also might have won a penalty on another day, with replays suggesting he had been tripped by Adama Diomande.
\nBut for all Chelsea s possession, there was not a serious moment of concern for Marshall in the Hull goal over the opening 45 minutes.
\nHis first real test came in the opening minutes of the second period as Eden Hazard turned his man just inside the home half and darted towards goal before dispatching a curling shot that Marshall diverted over.
\nThe ensuing corner was only half-cleared by the home side and N Golo Kante latched onto the rebound with a low shot that Marshall smothered easily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KINGSTON UPON HULL, United Kingdom : Willian and Diego Costa scored twice in six second-half minutes as Chelsea won 2-0 at Hull City on Saturday to claim a first win in four Premier League games. Willian struck in the 61st minute after Chelsea launched one of a series of increasingly dangerous counter-attacks. Costa s pass […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4632,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n