🔗 Share this article

Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the players was excellent."

Liam Rosenior has this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. His happy connection was extended with a commanding display from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home support evidently sensed it too, but the London side navigated the challenge with ease.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward 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 ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to assume control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great spirit throughout, but the better opportunities consistently fell Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the bar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after the second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as the provider again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, 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 very good situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

That made for an in the end routine evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.