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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. His happy connection was extended with a commanding display from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The packed home crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe should have been settled long before it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent opportunities to put their side in front in the opening period.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to assume command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Influence

Hull showed great spirit throughout, but the clearer chances always came to the visitors. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came off the crossbar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from there on out, registering 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to finish from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to coolly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive stride for their new manager at a place he knows very well.

Cup Omens Look Promising

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much remains to be done in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.