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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was excellent."

The Chelsea manager holds this place close to his heart, given some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. This happy association was extended with a commanding performance from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and perhaps ought to have been settled long before it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the spark for his team to assume command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull showed great spirit all game, but the clearer opportunities consistently came to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and Delap started to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his pass teed up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as Neto's corner went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider again played the decisive ball for the striker to calmly convert by a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who left out a number of key players with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Are Promising

The result resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. Much still done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.