Chelsea 2-2 Hull City: Tigers remain unbeaten as poor Blues defending leads to enthralling draw
Report and free match highlights as Chelsea draw 2-2 with Hull City in the Premier League; the visitors couldn’t contain the attacking trio of Morgan Rogers, Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro; poor defending from Chelsea let Mohamed Belloumi score twice to earn a point
Saturday 12 September 2026 18:51, UK
Hull continued their unbeaten start in the Premier League as they capitalised on some poor Chelsea defending to draw 2-2 at Stamford Bridge.
Sergej Jakirovic joked pre-match that the only way to stop Xabi Alonso's potent attack was to kick them. While they were unable to do that, they made the most of some calamitous moments at the back to leave west London with a point.
The hosts made the perfect start as a rapid counter-attack from a Hull corner ended with Morgan Rogers firing past Konstantinos Tzolakis at his near post.
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It was no more than Chelsea deserved after a positive start, but that was quickly undone. First, Jorrel Hato let the ball bounce over him inside his own penalty area, inviting Mohamed Belloumi to pounce and find the equaliser.
Belloumi was on hand to complete the turnaround moments later - putting Hull momentarily top of the league - as his strike from the edge of the box deflected off Levi Colwill and beat Emi Martinez.
It should have been three as a spilled effort fell to Oli McBurnie, only for Martinez to make up with a remarkable stop from close range. It proved to be a costly miss as Cole Palmer found Joao Pedro before the Brazilian smashed an equaliser into the roof of the net just after the hour mark.
Both sides had golden chances to win it, with Rogers and Mohamed-Ali Cho striking straight at the respective goalkeepers when goals seemed inevitable. However, it's was all smiles for Jakirovic and Hull, who came away from their toughest test of the season with plenty to be proud of.
More to follow...
The key moments from Stamford Bridge
7: GOAL! Hull’s defence breached for the first time as Rogers gives Chelsea the lead.
22: SAVE! Tzolakis called into action to deny Neto.
28: GOAL! Awful Hato defending allows Belloumi to equalise.
33: CLOSE! Coyle squanders glorious chance thanks to Colwill block.
34: GOAL! From the resulting corner, Belloumi’s strike deflects off Colwill and beats Martinez.
53: POST! Tzolakis’ fingertips pushes stunning James free-kick onto the post.
61: SAVE! Martinez recovers after initial spill to make incredible stop to deny McBurnie.
66: GOAL! Joao Pedro finds the roof of the net from close range.
84: SAVE! Rogers squanders big chance to give hosts lead.
87: SAVE! Cho misses huge chance from six yards out as Martinez thwarts substitute
What the managers said...
Chelsea boss Xabi Alonso:
"Maybe entertaining, but I hope one day you'll say it was a boring game and we win and we don't give these entertaining moments," said Alonso, whose team have now let in 12 goals in his six matches in charge.
"It kind of repeats some patterns that we are making. It will take time to fix them. When we get the lead, you still need to be competing and not give the chance so easily for them to come back, especially for the first goal. We can do much better. It was too soft.
"That momentum that we had [was lost], it changed the mood. It's something we need to keep talking and address. We will get better, but it's having an impact on our performances.
"Overall I think that we are attacking better than defending. It's a big topic and a big theme for us. It's just four [league] games, but the dynamic in terms of conceding, I don't like it.
"We can do better for sure. When we have the lead, a very important part of the game is to hold together, to keep the distances. I'm sure that we can do better."
Hull boss Sergej Jakirovic:
"I feel good. We have to be happy. It's a huge result for us.
"We had 2-1 at half-time and we had a 100 per cent chance with McBurnie, but Martinez's save was excellent. We had an excellent chance for [Mohamed-Al] Cho [near the end], Martinez saved again. Player of the match.
"We can be very happy. We took a point in a very demanding match."
Attack vs defence - Alonso needs to focus on the latter
Sky Sports' Callum Bishop:
Much of the talk surrounding the Chelsea team that Xabi Alonso is in the midst of creating is what they are capable of in attack. How can you stop JP Morgan?
No one has been able to stop them from contributing at least one goal per game this season, but you can't bank on them to get you out of footballing bankruptcy if you can't keep clean sheets.
It is a problem that has impacted the Blues for some time, not just under Alonso. This is the 20th Premier League game in a row their defence has been breached.
The signing of a World Cup winner and multi-time Yashin trophy winner in the form of Emi Martinez is all well and good. However, if he has defenders not doing the basics in front of him, he may as well be Robert Sanchez.
The 1.32 xG that Hull managed was a fair reflection of how dangerous they were at times at Stamford Bridge. And it wasn't like they carved open the hosts. Most of the time, they had chances put on a plate.
The potential in attack is obvious, and certainly exciting. However, Alonso needs to tap into his learnings under Jose Mourinho and make this Chelsea side much tougher to score against if he wants to challenge.
