The Portuguese Forward Fires Treble as Chelsea Deliver Manager The Boss with Joyous Return to Hull

Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind from the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s work for Chelsea.

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

Liam Rosenior has this city dear to him, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. His positive association continued with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Three days after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe ought to have been settled long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which acted as the spark for his team to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side showed plenty of fight throughout, but the better opportunities always came Chelsea’s way. The winger should have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and he started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, registering three assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after the second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap once again played the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly convert by a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several first-choice players 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 league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost got a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Are Good

The result resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. There is still done in that respect, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.