🔗 Share this article

Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber, alongside a determined home side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m 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 application of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Tigers. His happy connection continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull support evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps should have been settled long before it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing glorious chances to put their side in front in the first half.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular distance strike, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed great fight all game, but the clearer opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have opened the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the crossbar, and Delap started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, registering three assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap again played the crucial ball for the attacker to coolly slot past a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several key players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a positive example of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the end, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

Cup Omens Look Promising

The result made for an ultimately straightforward evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. Much still done in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.