The Portuguese Neto Scores Treble as The Blues Deliver Liam The Boss with Happy Homecoming to Hull

Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind 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 work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was excellent."

The Chelsea manager has this place close to his heart, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. This positive connection continued with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home crowd clearly felt it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match could and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull displayed great fight all game, but the better chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came back from the crossbar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his hat-trick as Delap once again played the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly slot by a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their focus must now switch back to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several first-choice individuals with that aim in mind.

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

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he knows very well.

Cup Omens Look Good

The result resulted in an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.