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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the makings of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am delighted with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Rosenior holds this place dear to him, considering some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. His happy connection continued with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the task perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

The home side showed great fight all game, but the clearer chances consistently came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the crossbar, and Delap began to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing 3 assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his hat-trick as the provider again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to coolly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice players with that goal 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 matches this can be a good example of how we should play."

There was great effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

The result resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. Much still done in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.