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Chelsea cruised into the fifth round of the FA Cup on Friday evening with a comfortable victory at Hull City but Liam Rosenior sparked concern among the fan base post-match
All in all, Friday evening was as close to perfect as Liam Rosenior could have hoped for.
The Chelsea head coach made an emotional return to Hull City and the 41-year-old was welcomed back warmly at the MKM Stadium almost two years on from his departure. Rosenior has a special place in his heart for the Tigers, and spoke glowingly about his connection with the Yorkshire club pre-match, but all of his attention was on getting the job done with the Blues in the FA Cup fourth round.
And the job was certainly done by the west Londoners - and in dominant fashion. It took Chelsea a while to get off the mark, with Pedro Neto scoring the opening goal of the tie on 40 minutes. From then on, though, the Blues looked as if they would score from every attack.
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Rosenior's side ended up scoring four in Hull, with Neto scoring his first hat-trick for the club and Estevao Willian also got on the score sheet. All of that and Rosenior managed to give some of his big hitters a well earned rest.
Joao Pedro was named on the bench for Chelsea on Friday night and did not come on in the end. If the match was tight, Rosenior would have probably called upon the Brazil international, who has been instrumental in the head coach's short tenure so far.
Only Cole Palmer has more direct goal contributions than Joao Pedro since Rosenior took charge last month. In Rosenior's 11 matches - in all competitions - thus far, Joao Pedro has scored six goals and provided one assist, while Palmer has five goals and three assists to his name.
The 24-year-old forward has been in sparkling form for Rosenior, while Palmer is showing signs of returning to somewhere near his best. The 23-year-old, who has struggled with injury problems throughout the campaign, did not travel to Hull with the rest of the squad, with Rosenior confirming why post-match.
He said on Palmer's absence: "Managing him. Brilliant to see Reece [James] back on the pitch. Brilliant for him to get those 60 minutes.
"I was planning on giving Enzo [Fernandez] 45 minutes with Moi [Caicedo]. I'm trying to manage their minutes. In the end, I felt it was right for Moi to stay on for 60.
"I'm delighted they've all come through unscathed and now, for the first time in a long time, they've got a full week to prepare for Burnley."
However, there is a concern over Marc Cucurella's injury. The Spain international, who has been an almost ever-present figure for Chelsea this season, was taken off at half-time in the Blues' 2-2 draw with Leeds United earlier in the week after hurting his hamstring in the first period.
Cucurella had a scan at the club's training base in Cobham a few days ago but Rosenior was unable to confirm to the press just how long the left-back will be missing for. When asked by football.london for an update on Cucurella's injury, Rosenior said: "At the moment, he's not fit. There's an issue with his hamstring. I don't know. I can't give you a time frame on it at the moment."
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