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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough tie; I am delighted with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Championship club. This happy connection continued with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed home support evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

Hull displayed great spirit throughout, but the clearer chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came off the crossbar, and Delap began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass teed up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap again played the decisive ball for the striker to coolly slot past a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice individuals 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 matches this can be a positive example of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

Cup History Look Good

The result resulted in an in the end routine evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.