Tigers frustrate Chelsea

Hull stifled the life out of Chelsea even though the home side had enough chances to win the game. John Terry and new on-loan signing Ricardo Quaresma were both denied by Hull keeper Matt Duke.

City had their own chances to win the game but Dean Marney screwed his shot wide from eight yards when put through by Geovanni.

Luiz Felipe Scolari's side have now dropped 16 points at home this season and after Aston Villa's win at Blackburn, they slipped into fourth place in the Barclays Premier League.

Perhaps the omens were there for Chelsea as early as the second minute when a free-kick from Frank Lampard found Terry inside the six-yard box and his first instinctive effort was saved by Duke.

When the ball rebounded back to the Chelsea captain just two yards out, he somehow contrived to send his second shot over the bar.

On the half-hour mark, Michael Ballack was sent sprawling by Kamil Zayatte 20 yards from the Hull goal. Ballack almost made the visitors pay with his free-kick which he curled around the City wall but into the side-netting.

There was little to indicate that Chelsea had the guile to break the deadlock and the home fans were becoming more frustrated.

In the 67th minute Hull wasted a gilt-edged chance to open the scoring when Geovanni carved open the Chelsea defence with a perfect through ball for Marney. The Hull player probably did not realise how much time he had as he screwed his shot just beyond the far post.

Four minutes from time substitute Didier Drogba sent a free-kick wide of the target to complete a miserable afternoon for the Blues.