Both Chelsea and Hull were aiming to rediscover their early season form on Saturday afternoon at the KC Stadium and after a fairly even first half, Chelsea enjoyed a comfortable second half en route to a 2-0 away win.
Goals from Willian and Diego Costa, in similar fashion, were enough to help Antonio Conte's side return to winning ways after two consecutive league defeats.
Chances here and there
It was the home side who mustered the first, and best, opportunity of the match after three minutes had passed. David Luiz brought down Dieumerci Mbokani on the edge of the box and the resulting free kick from Robert Snodgrass was expertly tipped over the crossbar by Thibaut Courtois.
Chelsea's best opportunity in the first half came on a quarter of an hour as Willian shifted the ball onto his right foot and fizzed a cross-come shot across the face of goal and just wide of the post. Minutes later, a long ball from David Luiz was plucked out of the sky by Diego Costa, who then found Willian in acres of space, but the Brazilian couldn't get a clean contact on his effort.
The visitors also had shouts for a penalty denied as Victor Moses, Chelsea's best player in the first half, saw his foot hooked out from under him after some neat footwork but referee Anthony Taylor ignored any claims.
A fairly dull opening 45 minutes from both sides with neither team producing a clear-cut opportunity to take the lead.
Chelsea finally get things going
Chelsea began the second half in much better fashion and produced their best moment of the game inside two minutes. An excellent turn from Eden Hazard allowed the Belgian to then skip past two players before firing at David Marshall, who was forced into a great save.
The away side should've opened the scoring just before the hour mark as Diego Costa raced through and rounded David Marshall, but his shot took a touch off Jake Livermore and smacked the post before N'Golo Kante rushed in but could only send the follow up shot into row Z.
The deadlock was broken minutes after Kante's miss as Diego Costa found Willian, who moved the ball onto his right foot and curled a beauty past Marshall to make it 1-0 to Chelsea. The Blues continued to threaten in the moments following their opener and Diego Costa almost made it 2-0, spinning away from his defender and firing towards goal but Marshall got down well to parry the ball away.
Diego Costa did in fact make it 2-0 on 67 minutes after Nemanja Matic's run ended in his shot getting blocked but Costa, in an eerily similar fashion to Willian's goal, curled his effort into the top left-hand corner to double the visitors' lead.
Chelsea had another shout for a penalty with under 15 minutes to go as some intricate link up play between Costa and Hazard eventually put Willian through but the winger seemed to have been brought down at the last second.
A bounce back win for the Blues against a Hull side that were no pushovers. Conte will be delighted with the second half performance after a lackluster first half.