There were two good reasons to admire Frank Lampard's sublime opening goal at Hull - the sheer aesthetic beauty of it and the impact it had on a potentially difficult fixture.

Felipe Scolari is 60-years-old in 11 days time and has seen an awful lot of football in that time, yet the floated ball over the head of Bo Myhill and into the Hull net, with just two minutes on the clock, was enough to have the Chelsea manager sprinkling his post-match words with superlatives.

'It is one of the best goals I have seen in my life,' he announced.

'It is a goal only a player of Frank Lampard's quality can score. He is an intelligent player, all game he played very well, and he is a man that is never tired. I don't see any player the same as Lampard. He is fantastic for the coach.'

Scolari will also have enjoyed the second-half moment when Lampard successfully executed a Ronaldinho-style look one way, pass the other move - setting up the final chance of the game for Salomon Kalou. But it was the win as a whole that satisfied him the most.

'After we lose against Liverpool, I think our reaction is very good,' the Brazilian said. 'We play very well and we had many chances. It is three more points and we try now to pressure other clubs.

'Hull is a difficult team to beat, because they have tall players, they jump very well, they fight. But for a team at home, after three minutes to concede a goal, it is difficult for them to think about the game. And our players are experienced players. They work the ball more because we are in a good position.'

Hull manager Phil Brown's reading of the match was pretty much in harmony with Scolari's.

'You need too minimise your mistakes in games like this and we did not do that,' Brown regretted. 'We did cause them problems in the first half but conceding goals at the start of each half killed us.

'We had opportunities to clear our lines before the first goal and the second one took the wind out of our sails. There was a gulf at times in the second half but that was because it was 2-0 and they had breathing space.'

It was space exploited for Florent Malouda to score the third goal, Nicolas Anelka having capitalised on goalkeeping uncertainty for the second.

'I think the second killed them,' said Scolari. 'Before we had four clear chances to win the game but we made the wrong shoot, and the keeper made a very good save.

'After the second goal, we played more free. They offered for us more pitch to counter-attack. After 2-0 it is easy to make three or four goals because they opened.'

Before leaving the KC Stadium for London, Scolari estimated that Ricardo Carvalho could be out for a minimum of three weeks after leaving the game near the end clutching the back of his thigh. Joe Cole, who had been subbed earlier on, had felt something in his ankle his manager reported, retaining hope it won't keep the player out of action this weekend.