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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult night's work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The application of the players was excellent."

The Rosenior has this place dear to him, given some of his family hail from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Championship club. His positive association was extended with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull crowd evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and maybe ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side showed great fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and Delap began to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from outside the box. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his treble as Delap again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to coolly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now return 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 very good position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was great endeavour to the end, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

That made for an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. There is still done in that respect, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.