Pedro Neto Scores Treble as The Blues Provide Liam The Boss with Joyous Homecoming to Hull

Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from the fans of fans. The attitude of the players was excellent."

The Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, considering some of his family hail from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Championship club. This positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed Hull support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull showed plenty of fight throughout, but the better opportunities always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have opened the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which bounced back from the crossbar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from the forward teed up his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider once again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to calmly slot by a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of key individuals with that aim 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 league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Look Good

That made for an in the end straightforward night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. Much still done in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.