Joao Pedro spares Chelsea's blushes against Hull
Joao Pedro scored one and set up another as Chelsea had to come from behind in a 2-2 draw against Hull City in the Premier League.
Morgan Rogers fired in the opener from Joao Pedro's pass in just the seventh minute, but Mohamed Belloumi's six-minute double turned the game around before half-time.
Joao Pedro fired in a powerful finish in the 66th minute, denying Hull what would have been another impressive scalp early in its return to the Premier League.
Hull's defence was breached for the first time in the league this season when Rogers shifted away from Regan Slater and rifled a low effort inside the near post.
Chelsea looked dangerous when going forward, but Ryan Giles's hopeful, looping cross was misjudged by Jorrel Hato and Belloumi punished him with a fine finish beyond Emiliano Martinez.
The Blues were somehow behind six minutes later, with Oli McBurnie teeing up Belloumi for his second after Semi Ajayi's header came back off the crossbar.
Reece James went close to bringing Chelsea back on level terms eight minutes after the restart, but his free-kick was pushed away from the top corner by Konstantinos Tzolakis.
It was Joao Pedro who restored parity when he fired in Cole Palmer's cutback, but Hull nearly nicked all three points in the 88th minute, but Mohamed-Ali Cho was unable to get the better of Martinez.
Estevao felt he should have had a penalty when his cross appeared to strike the hand of Ajayi in stoppage-time, but the appeal was ignored as the spoils were shared.
Chelsea boss Xabi Alonso was frustrated by his side's display.
"We're disappointed with the result," he said.
"We have to be disappointed with some parts of the performance, especially when we had the lead. We got what we deserved.
"We were too soft for the equaliser. We can do much better. "[Playing well for] 15 to 20 minutes is not enough. You have to be on your top for 90 minutes.
"There are times we're not able to keep that momentum and intensity. We could have done more for sure because we had the chances.
"We had one or two good chances to get the winner, but you're still open. Not happy because we can do better.
"We need to be more solid and be more controlled. But it's new players and new staff. This is the process. In a few months, I'm sure we'll be able to control better."
Although his defence was breached for the first time this season in the Premier League, Hull boss Sergej Jakirovic was understandably delighted with the result.
"I feel good. We have to be happy. It's a huge result for us," he said.
"We can be very happy with ourselves. We took a point in a very demanding match, and we have eight points against very difficult opponents. We have to continue like this."
Jo茫o聽Pedro Junqueira de Jesus
Chelsea FC
