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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Rosenior has this place close to his heart, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Tigers. This happy association was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comprehensive Victory

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The packed Hull support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and perhaps ought to have been settled long before it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to assume control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great fight all game, but the clearer chances consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare 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 thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up his teammate to finish from range. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap once again played the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now return to securing a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several key players with that aim in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive example of how we must play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

That resulted in an in the end routine evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much still done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.