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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a swirling wind from the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "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 superb."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, given part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. His positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull crowd evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and perhaps ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

Hull showed great fight all game, but the better chances always fell to the visitors. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which came off the bar, and he began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing three assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from the forward teed up his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap once again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to calmly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he knows intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Good

The result resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the final. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.