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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this place dear to him, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. This happy connection was extended with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The capacity Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and perhaps ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to assume control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities always came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the crossbar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Soon after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then completed his hat-trick as the provider again played the crucial ball for the striker to calmly slot past a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup History Look Promising

The result made for an in the end straightforward evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.