Pedro Forward Fires Treble as Chelsea Provide Liam Rosenior with Happy Homecoming to Hull

Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling wind from the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the players was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this city dear to him, given part of his family hail from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Tigers. His happy association was extended with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent opportunities to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of spirit throughout, but the better opportunities consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came back from the crossbar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to clear the threat.

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

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the crucial pass for the striker to coolly slot past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who rested a number of 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 Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was great endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Good

The result resulted in an in the end routine night's work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to make the final. Much still done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.