The Portuguese Forward Scores Treble as The Blues Provide Liam The Boss with Happy Homecoming to Hull City

Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m delighted with the display," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. This positive connection continued with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity Hull support clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to take control of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Influence

The home side displayed great fight all game, but the clearer opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which came back from the crossbar, and Delap started to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Soon after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as the provider once again played the crucial pass for the striker to calmly convert by a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of key individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive example of how we must play."

There was great effort to the end, and they nearly got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup History Are Promising

That resulted in an in the end straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. There is still work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.