The Portuguese Neto Fires Treble as Chelsea Provide Manager The Boss with Happy Homecoming to Hull City

Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive reception from the fans of fans. The application of the players was excellent."

The Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given part of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Championship club. This positive connection was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comprehensive Victory

Three days after letting slip a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull support evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous distance strike, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to assume control of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Influence

Hull showed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer chances always fell to the visitors. The winger should have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced back from the crossbar, and Delap began to celebrate believing the ball had gone over 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 that point onward, providing 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after the second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the opening half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to securing a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several key players 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 strong situation in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive example of how we should play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he knows intimately.

FA Cup History Are Promising

The result resulted in an in the end routine evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. There is still done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.