Hull City put up a real fight, but Chelsea knocked them out of the FA Cup in the fourth round. Liam Rosenior’s team, heavily rotated for the occasion, couldn’t handle Pedro Neto, who ran the show with a hat-trick.

Chelsea finally broke through right before halftime. Neto picked up the ball on the edge of the box and drilled it into the bottom corner – pure class. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the night.

Hull had a few bright spells early on, but without Oli McBurnie or Joe Gelhardt leading the line, they just couldn’t finish. Chelsea killed off the game right after the break, with Neto grabbing another and Estevao tapping in a third. Neto wrapped things up with a calm finish, thanks to some clever play from Liam Delap.

Jakirovic didn’t hold back with his changes – six in total from the team that lost to Bristol City. Phillips, McCarthy, Hadziahmetovic, Millar, Hirakawa, and Koumas all started. Charlie Hughes and Toby Collyer missed out through injury, and McBurnie wasn’t even in the squad. It was pretty clear Jakirovic had one eye on the marathon of fixtures coming up: seven games in three weeks.

Hull came out swinging. Within two minutes, Koumas beat the offside trap but then hesitated, and his ball across the goal went nowhere. Giles managed to recycle it, but Chelsea’s keeper Sanchez handled it easily.

Chelsea showed their teeth after ten minutes. Garnacho broke free behind Coyle and forced a sharp stop from Phillips, with McCarthy blocking Neto’s follow-up. Hull responded, Slater sparked a counter, and Millar hustled to win the ball back and set up Koumas, but his shot got blocked. Estevao had a golden chance minutes later, rounding Phillips only to blast his effort over the bar.

Phillips gave Delap a gift after dawdling on the ball, the rebound bouncing off the bar to the ex-Hull striker, but Phillips scrambled back for a crucial save. Hull countered; Hirakawa drew a foul on the edge of the box, and Giles forced Sanchez into a save.

Hull kept battling, but right before halftime, they got punished for not clearing their lines. Neto pounced, firing low into the bottom corner. That was real Premier League quality, and Chelsea had it in abundance.

The second half? All Chelsea. Neto scored straight from a corner, the ball slipping through Phillips at the near post. Soon after, Delap powered down the wing and set up Estevao for a simple finish – no way back for Hull.

Lundstram and Gelhardt came on for Hull, while Chelsea brought on Enzo Fernandez and Josh Acheampong. Drameh, Joseph, and Dowell followed for Hull, and Delap left the pitch to warm applause from the home crowd. Koumas almost grabbed a late consolation, hitting the post in stoppage time.

With Hull’s defensive struggles this season, this was always going to be a tough night if Chelsea showed up. Rosenior got a solid reception from the home fans, and his team gave it a real go in attack.

But now, Hull have to refocus. There are fifteen promotion games left, and that’s the real priority. Time to regroup and get ready for the run-in.

Liam Rosenior is about to make an emotional trip back to Hull, and honestly, it means a lot more to him than just another match. He opened up about his late grandmother, Nanny Cath, who absolutely loved the club. She was a season-ticket holder, and Rosenior played and managed there himself; it’s all pretty close to his heart.

Chelsea kick off the FA Cup fourth round this weekend at Hull’s MKM Stadium, and Rosenior can’t shake the feeling that Nanny Cath had something to do with this draw. She’s buried less than a mile from Hull’s training ground. The whole Rosenior family is coming together for the game in Yorkshire, which doesn’t happen often.

Chelsea’s head coach wants to steer clear of an FA Cup upset, but for Rosenior, this tie is special. He talked about the first time he joined Hull: “I went there on trial, no contract, nothing. I took Nanny Cath to the local Harvester, sat her down, and told her, ‘I’m going to sign for Hull City.’ She was already a season ticket holder, so she was thrilled. Sadly, she passed away, and now she’s buried just down the road from where the team trains. When I took the Hull job, it was almost exactly a year after her funeral. You can tell this club really matters to me; I get emotional just talking about it.”

He swears there’s something else at play, maybe a little bit of help from above. “I used to visit Hull every summer as a kid, when she lived there. I went to Boothferry Park to watch games. Strangely, I’m from London, but I feel this pull to Hull. Plus, Hull is twinned with Freetown, and I’m from Sierra Leone. There are all these weird connections.”

For him and his family, this weekend is a big deal. They’ll all get together Friday night, which is rare since they live so far apart. Still, Rosenior says he’s locked in on the match and ready to give everything.

It’s a full-circle moment for him. Back in 2014, Rosenior played in the FA Cup final with Hull, only to lose 3-2 to Arsenal after extra time. Mikel Arteta was the Arsenal captain that day. “I went from being on trial at Hull to captaining them in Europe and playing in an FA Cup final. Those are the memories you want, and that’s what I want to build at Chelsea now.”

But he’s also got work to do. After Chelsea blew a 2-0 lead against Leeds and ended up drawing 2-2, Rosenior pulled the squad together the next morning at Cobham. He made them watch clips from the game, including the two goals they let in after some pretty shaky defending.

“It wasn’t just the two mistakes,” he said. “We talked about things like how we manage the game after we score and what that should look like.”

Rosenior’s determined to get things right, and he’s not wasting time. “My job is to make this team as good as possible, as fast as possible. We had a good meeting to clear things up. In football, mistakes happen. That’s just part of it. What frustrated me was that there was so much good stuff in that game, but now we’re all talking about the mistakes. The players need to know that, so next time we play like that, we’re celebrating three points instead.”