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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a biting wind off the banks of the Humber, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the makings of a challenging evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was superb."

Liam Rosenior has this place dear to him, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Championship club. This positive association was extended with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

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

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and maybe should have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

Hull showed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer chances consistently came to the visitors. The winger should have broken the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the crossbar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, providing 3 assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as the forward's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider once again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to coolly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested a number of key individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a positive example of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive stride for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Are Promising

The result made for an in the end routine evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.