Jose Mourinho made a winning return as Chelsea manager with a 2-0 success at home to promoted Hull City in the club\u2019s opening English Premier League game yesterday.<\/p>\n
Back at Stamford Bridge after spells at Inter Milan and Real Madrid, Mourinho saw his side prevail through early goals from Oscar and Frank Lampard on a warm, sunny afternoon in west London.<\/p>\n
The Europa League champions looked on course for a handsome win after scoring twice in the first 25 minutes, but they took their foot off the pedal thereafter, perhaps with a view to Wednesday\u2019s visit of Aston Villa.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no doubts it was a deserved victory,\u201d Mourinho told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrilliant first half\u2014high intensity, high quality, great movement, great football. It\u2019s not a surprise that the second half couldn\u2019t be the same as the first because the first was outstanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course I\u2019m happy with the victory and I\u2019m happy because what we did in the first half was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the reception he received from the Chelsea fans, he added: \u201cIt was fantastic. It\u2019s something you don\u2019t forget, it\u2019s something that makes me think I made the right move by coming back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m one of them (the fans), so I\u2019m so pleased and so happy with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mourinho picked Fernando Torres ahead of Romelu Lukaku up front, with captain John Terry selected at centre-back and returning loanee Kevin De Bruyne preferred to Juan Mata in attacking midfield.<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper Allan McGregor was among five debutants for Hull and he was quickly involved, clumsily clattering Torres but then plunging to his right to repel Lampard\u2019s subsequent penalty in the sixth minute.<\/p>\n
It was a temporary reprieve, however, as seven minutes later Oscar put Chelsea ahead by poking the ball beneath McGregor from De Bruyne\u2019s pass.<\/p>\n
Lampard got on the score-sheet in the 25th minute with a dipping 30-yard free-kick that deceived McGregor, who had to save from Branislav Ivanovic in first-half injury time.<\/p>\n
That opportunity yielded the clearest demonstration of goal-line technology of the season\u2019s opening weekend, with Hawk-Eye replays proving that McGregor had clawed Ivanovic\u2019s header away from right on the line. Hull manager Steve Bruce introduced Jake Livermore and on-loan Tom Huddlestone\u2014both of whom arrived from Tottenham Hotspur this week\u2014in the second half, while Mourinho sent on new signing Andre Schuerrle.<\/p>\n
Hull centre-back Curtis Davies headed straight at Petr Cech and Schuerrle chipped narrowly over the bar, before Mourinho handed a league debut to another new recruit, Dutch midfielder Marco van Ginkel.<\/p>\n
Earlier, new Tottenham signing Roberto Soldado proved there is life without Gareth Bale by giving his side a 1-0 win at another promoted side, Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n
Bale, strongly linked with a move to Real Madrid, was absent with a foot injury, but a 50th-minute penalty from \u00a326 million ($40.4 million, 30.4 million euros) club record signing Soldado meant Spurs did not miss him.<\/p>\n
Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas handed league debuts to Soldado, Paulinho and Nacer Chadli at Selhurst Park, while Etienne Capoue made his Spurs bow as a second-half substitute. The decisive goal arrived five minutes into the second half, with Soldado adroitly sending goalkeeper Julian Speroni the wrong way from 12 yards after Dean Moxey blocked Aaron Lennon\u2019s cross with a flailing hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very important to open with a win. (Crystal Palace manager) Ian Holloway really puts his team together very well. They were very narrow and there was some unpredictability,\u201d said Villas-Boas.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should have put the game to bed, but I\u2019m generally very pleased to come to a difficult ground and get the three points.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holloway was aggrieved with the penalty decision, saying: \u201cI don\u2019t understand how it was a penalty, or how Dean Moxey could have got out of the way of it. I had three players right behind him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a long hard season for me with these people (referees). I had this with Blackpool. Certain clubs get fouls and others don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a horrible taste in my mouth after that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defending champions Manchester United moved to the top of the fledgling standings with a 4-1 win at Swansea City on Saturday\u2019s opening day, in what was David Moyes\u2019 first league game as manager.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger apologised to the club\u2019s fans after a 3-1 loss at home to Villa. Manchester City, champions in 2012, begin their campaign at home to Newcastle United today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jose Mourinho made a winning return as Chelsea manager with a 2-0 success at home to promoted Hull City in the club\u2019s opening English Premier League game yesterday.<\/p>\n
Back at Stamford Bridge after spells at Inter Milan and Real Madrid, Mourinho saw his side prevail through early goals from Oscar and Frank Lampard on a warm, sunny afternoon in west London.<\/p>\n
The Europa League champions looked on course for a handsome win after scoring twice in the first 25 minutes, but they took their foot off the pedal thereafter, perhaps with a view to Wednesday\u2019s visit of Aston Villa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}