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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side fighting for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the display," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this place dear to him, considering some of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. This happy association continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great fight all game, but the clearer opportunities always came to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the scoring when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which came back from the crossbar, and Delap began to celebrate 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 danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, providing three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Soon after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as Delap again played the decisive pass for the striker to calmly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now return to achieving a return to the top division under their manager, who rested several key players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play 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 good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup History Look Promising

That made for an in the end routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.