The Portuguese Neto Scores Hat-Trick as The Blues Deliver Manager Rosenior with Joyous Return to Hull

Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the players was excellent."

The Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. This positive association was extended with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular long-range strike, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to assume control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the better opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came back from the crossbar, and Delap started to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball set up his teammate to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to coolly slot by a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since erased. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a return to the top division under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice players 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 situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup History Look Promising

That resulted in an ultimately routine night's work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. Much remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.