The Portuguese Forward Scores Treble as The Blues Provide Liam The Boss with Happy Homecoming to Hull City

Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting wind from the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a challenging evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong 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 nice to get a good reception from the fans of supporters. The application of the lads was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, considering part of his family hail from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Championship club. His happy association was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed home support evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting seven of them to his XI. The tie might and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for spurning glorious opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which acted as the spark for his team to assume command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great spirit all game, but the clearer opportunities consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and he started to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering three assists. The opening 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 Neto's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap once again played the crucial pass for the striker to coolly slot by a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had long since erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who rested a number of first-choice individuals with that aim in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they almost claimed a consolation when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he knows intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

The result resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much still work in that respect, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.