🔗 Share this article

Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m very pleased with the display," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. His positive connection was extended with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe should have been decided long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Influence

Hull displayed great spirit all game, but the better chances consistently fell to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which bounced back from the bar, and he began to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Soon after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider again played the decisive ball for the striker to calmly convert past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to securing a promotion to the top division under their manager, who left out several first-choice individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was great endeavour to the end, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive step forward for their new manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Good

The result made for an in the end straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the final. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.