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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 pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this place close to his heart, considering some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. This happy association continued with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home support evidently sensed it too, but the London side handled the task perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The match could and maybe should have been settled long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range strike, which acted as the catalyst for his team to assume command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer opportunities consistently fell to the visitors. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came off the bar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up his teammate to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from the forward laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap again played the decisive pass for the striker to coolly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several first-choice players with that goal in mind.

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

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Look Promising

That made for an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.