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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, given part of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. His happy association was extended with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe ought to have been decided earlier than it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which acted as the catalyst for his team to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed great fight all game, but the clearer chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the bar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed 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 miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after the second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as Delap once again delivered the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they almost got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive stride for their new head coach at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

That resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the showpiece. There is remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.