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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s task for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m delighted with the display," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Tigers. His positive connection continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

The manager rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing glorious chances to put their side ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to assume control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull showed great spirit all game, but the clearer opportunities always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which came off the bar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 assists. The opening was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after the second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap once again played the decisive pass for the attacker to calmly slot by a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

The result resulted in an in the end straightforward night's work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.