Pedro Neto Scores Treble as The Blues Deliver Manager Rosenior with Happy Homecoming to Hull

Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind off the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the display," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. His positive association was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comprehensive Victory

Three days after surrendering a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the challenge with ease.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe ought to have been settled long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious chances to put their side ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great fight throughout, but the better chances consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the bar, and Delap began to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering 3 key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to calmly convert past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was great effort to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Look Promising

The result resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the showpiece. There is remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.