🔗 Share this article

Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze from the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Rosenior holds this city dear to him, given some of his family hail from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Tigers. His positive connection continued with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Three days after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but the London side handled the task perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps should have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning glorious chances to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the better opportunities always fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced back from the bar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, providing three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the opening half-hour had long since forgotten. Their priority must now return to achieving a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Good

The result made for an in the end routine evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to make the final. There is remains to be done in that respect, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.