Pedro Neto Fires Hat-Trick as The Blues Provide Liam The Boss with Happy Homecoming to Hull City

Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind from the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined home side fighting for promotion, this had all the makings of a challenging evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, considering part of his relatives are from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Championship club. This happy association continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home support clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to take control of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

Hull showed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the bar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from the forward laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider once again delivered the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the top division under their manager, who left out several first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive step forward for their new manager at a stadium he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Good

That made for an in the end routine evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. Much still work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.