[ 2014-01-12 ]

On the up: Eden Hazard broke the deadlock during the second half as Chelsea moved to the top of the table

Chelsea tops with a win over Hull
Jose Mourinho might be more sanguine of attitude
and more silver of hair, but here in the East
Riding yesterday it felt suspiciously like 2005
all over again as his machine-like Chelsea side
restored themselves at the summit of the Premier
League.
In a performance of greater efficiency than élan,
they holed Hull below the waterline with a
wondrous goal from Eden Hazard before seeing out a
fifth straight victory, thanks to the resilience
of Petr Cech, who collected a top-flight record of
209 matches without conceding.
The blue bulldozer is moving ominously through the
gears once more. The significance of snatching top
spot on Saturday night was not lost on Mourinho,
whose coolly understated reaction underlined his
reinvention as the ‘Happy One’. “We like to
be leaders,” he said. “You can see the
evolution of this team. It’s important that the
team grows up and accepts the responsibility,
because we knew that we could not lose this
chance.”
It was evident, too, why Chelsea have strongly
rebuffed the rumoured interest in Hazard from
Paris St Germain as the Belgian delivered a third
straight man-of-the-match display, producing the
eye-of-the-needle finish that finally broke
Hull’s admirable resistance.
“Eden has been playing very well for a long
time,” Mourinho reflected, while Hazard toasted
his 11th goal of the campaign. “This season we
are seeing a much more mature player, who is
getting better and better. He accepts what he has
to do, without losing any of his fantastic talent.
Our strikers, without being the top scorers in the
league, are giving us all the important things.”

Source - The Telegraph

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