The Portuguese Forward Fires Hat-Trick as The Blues Provide Manager Rosenior with Happy Homecoming to Hull City

Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the display," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Championship club. This happy association was extended with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The packed home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe should have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the better chances consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the bar, and he started to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, providing three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider once again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who rested several key individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

The result made for an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.