We know Liam Rosenior is not afraid of showing his squad footage of their acts of folly. After his big miss here, Liam Delap may have feared being tied to a chair and, in the style of Clockwork Orange, forced to watch his big miss over and over upon his return to Cobham.
Initially, Delap did well. His closing down of Dillon Phillips was enough to block the Hull goalkeeper’s clearance as the ball then bounced off the underside of the crossbar.
It went so close to the goal-line that Delap thought it was in, lifting his arm in the air and looking towards the referee. The trouble is, the ball had not crossed the line, and Delap had wasted so much time believing it had that he reacted too late to the rebound. He should have shown some urgency by simply making sure it was in himself, and you suspect Rosenior will let him know that.
Maybe he did at half-time because, credit where it is due, Delap responded excellently. He ended this FA Cup fourth-round tie with three assists, and one in particular showed his skillset.
He held up the ball, turned his man, barged into the box while still riding him, and unselfishly set up Estevao Willian. It was little wonder Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho and Jorrel Hato all went to celebrate with Chelsea’s No 9 first before joining their Brazilian team-mate.
Delap will know he needs to up his game in terms of goals if he wishes to stay at Chelsea for a good while. Just look at Nicolas Jackson, who scored 30 goals in all competitions across two seasons and was then told he can find a new club.
Liam Delap was a constant menace and ultimately ended up with three assists
Delap received manager Liam Rosenior’s plaudits at the end, despite his early miss
Delap has three goals for Chelsea since signing, and should have had his fourth here, but he was at least able to show other reasons why they spent £30million on him in the summer.
Neto answers critics
Few Chelsea players have received as much hate as Pedro Neto of late.
Even after having a positive impact in their Premier League win at Wolves last weekend, he was crucified, the odd clickbait clip being shared on social media as if to invite pile-ons.
Neto will know of the criticism. He celebrates with his fingers in his ears, after all. We will probably still have critics saying ‘he’s found his level’ after this hat-trick versus Championship Hull.
His opener was the best of the bunch as he took a touch to set himself and then struck from 25 yards, curling into the corner as Chelsea got going in this 4-0 rout.
Sarr looks like a star
Mamadou Sarr’s first start for Chelsea was highly impressive.
His one and only appearance was previously as an 82nd-minute substitute versus ES Tunis at the Club World Cup. He was then sent on loan to Strasbourg towards the end of that summer, but recalled in January when Chelsea failed to bring in a new central defender.
Hull did not trouble him greatly, but one moment which we liked was when he had the ball at the back. He launched a long pass towards the front line after spotting the run of Estevao, who should have scored after rounding Hull’s goalkeeper but sending his attempt over the crossbar.
