🔗 Share this article The Portuguese Forward Scores Hat-Trick as Chelsea Deliver Liam Rosenior with Joyous Homecoming to Hull City Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling 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 difficult evening’s work for Chelsea. "We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a positive reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was superb." The Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. This positive association was extended with a magnificent performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition. Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Win Three days after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease. The manager rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match could and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period. However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the spark for his team to assume control of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick. The Forward's Redemption and Influence Hull displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the better chances always fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team. He blocked a Phillips's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and he started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, 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 three assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in through Phillips's legs. Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts Soon after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap again played the decisive pass for the attacker to calmly slot past a helpless Phillips. By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under their manager, who left out several first-choice individuals with that aim in mind. "In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good example of how we must play." There was great endeavour to the end, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately. Cup Omens Are Good The result resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. There is still done in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.