The Portuguese Forward Scores Hat-Trick as Chelsea Provide Manager The Boss with Happy Homecoming to Hull City

Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling wind off the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, considering some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. This positive connection was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Seals Comprehensive Victory

Three days after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and maybe ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range strike, which acted as the spark for his team to assume control of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer chances consistently came to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his hat-trick as the provider once again played the crucial ball for the striker to coolly slot past a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice players 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," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming 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 consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

The result made for an in the end routine night's performance, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the showpiece. There is still done in that regard, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.