The Portuguese Forward Scores Treble as The Blues Provide Liam Rosenior with Joyous Homecoming to Hull City

Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the players was excellent."

The Chelsea manager has this place close to his heart, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Championship club. His happy connection was extended with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days after letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the task perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

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 command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

The home side showed great spirit throughout, but the better chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the bar, and Delap started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as Neto's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as the provider again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to calmly slot by a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their focus must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was great effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a consolation when a substitute hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

That resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the showpiece. Much still work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.