The Portuguese Neto Fires Treble as The Blues Provide Liam Rosenior with Joyous Homecoming to Hull

Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind from the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior holds this place dear to him, considering part of his family hail from Hull and his successful period in management of the Championship club. This happy association continued with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and maybe should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for spurning glorious opportunities to put their side in front in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Impact

The home side showed great fight all game, but the clearer chances consistently came to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which bounced off the bar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering three assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

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

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now return to securing 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 position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a positive example of how we should play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

That resulted in an in the end routine night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much still done in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.