The Portuguese Forward Fires Hat-Trick as Chelsea Provide Manager The Boss with Joyous Return to Hull City

Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the makings of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager has this place close to his heart, given part of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Championship club. His positive association continued with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for spurning glorious chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Influence

Hull showed great fight all game, but the clearer opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced back from the crossbar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his hat-trick as Delap once again played the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly slot by a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who rested a number of key players 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 very good situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a positive example of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup History Look Good

The result resulted in an in the end routine evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. There is still done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.