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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from the fans of fans. The application of the players was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this place dear to him, considering part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. His happy connection continued with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge with ease.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to assume command of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

The home side showed plenty of fight all game, but the better opportunities always came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the crossbar, and he started to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap again played the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly slot past a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Good

That made for an in the end straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to make the final. There is remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.