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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting wind from the banks of the Humber, alongside a determined Hull City side fighting for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a good reception from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this place dear to him, given part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. His happy connection continued with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed Hull support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

Hull showed great fight throughout, but the clearer chances consistently came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the bar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over 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 moment, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up Neto to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after the second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider once again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to coolly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the top division under their manager, who rested a number of key individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good situation in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive example of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

The result made for an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the final. There is still work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.