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Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a positive reception from the fans of fans. The attitude of the players was superb."

Liam Rosenior has this city close to his heart, considering some of his family hail from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Championship club. This happy association continued with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Secures Comfortable Win

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed home support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The match could and maybe should have been settled long before it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent chances to put their side in front in the first half.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a marvellous distance strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side showed plenty of fight throughout, but the better opportunities consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the deadlock when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced back from the crossbar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, 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 miss, but he was immensely influential from there on out, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Soon after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then finished his treble as the provider once again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to calmly convert past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key players with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good example of how we should play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive step forward for their new manager at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup History Look Good

That resulted in an ultimately routine night's performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.