🔗 Share this article

Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I am delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from the fans of supporters. The application of the players was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Championship club. His happy association continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comprehensive Win

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home support clearly sensed it too, but the London side navigated the task perfectly.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the better chances always came to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the bar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, providing 3 assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as Neto's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider once again played the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their new head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Good

That made for an ultimately straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.