Chelsea vs. Hull City aka The Season Hath Arrived: Lineups & Game Thread

With Premier League football's return to Stamford Bridge - I know, it sounds so good - comes ironically a triumvirate of returns.

Today's match marks the return of Hull City, and Steve Bruce, to the top flight of English football. Welcome back. More significantly, however, from a Chelsea and global footballing perspective, Matchday 1 at the Bridge brings with it the return of The Special One, henceforth rebranded The Happy One.

Jose Mourinho has said all the right things. His preseason sides have done mostly all the right things. But now - now it's real. The Mourinho era, mark II, is officially underway.

Let the fun begin.

Team sheets

Chelsea
Petr Cech; Branislav Ivanovic, John Terry (c), Gary Cahill, Ashley Cole; Ramires, Frank Lampard; Oscar, Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard; Fernando Torres.

Bench: Mark Schwarzer, Michael Essien, Marco van Ginkel, Andre Schurrle, Juan Mata, Demba Ba, Romelu Lukaku.

Hull City Tigers
Allen McGregor; Maynor Figueroa, James Chester, Curtis Davies, Ahmed Elmohamady; Robert Koren, David Meyler, Robbie Brady; Sone Aluko, Yannick Sagbo, Danny Graham.

Bench: Steve Harper, Liam Rosenior, Alex Bruce, Tom Huddlestone, Jake Livermore, Paul McShane, George Boyd.