Pedro Forward Scores Treble as Chelsea Deliver Liam Rosenior with Joyous Homecoming to Hull City

Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting wind off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I’m very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

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

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but the London side navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the better opportunities always fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the crossbar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly convert past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good example of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the end, and they almost got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a stadium he knows very well.

Cup History Are Good

The result resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to make the final. Much still work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.