Pedro Neto Fires Hat-Trick as Chelsea Provide Manager Rosenior with Happy Homecoming to Hull

Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind off the banks of the Humber, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. This positive connection continued with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering 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 clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The match could and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great fight all game, but the better opportunities consistently fell to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which came back from the bar, and Delap began to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing three assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after the second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as the provider once again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to calmly convert by a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good example of how we should play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive step forward for their new manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup History Look Good

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 times in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to make the showpiece. Much still done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.