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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a good welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior has this city close to his heart, considering some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. This positive connection continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comfortable Win

Three days after letting slip a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home support clearly felt it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and perhaps should have been decided earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning excellent chances to put their side in front in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the spark for his team to take control of the match. By full time, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the better opportunities consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering three assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider again delivered the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several first-choice 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. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive step forward for their new manager at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

Cup Omens Are Promising

That made for an in the end routine evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.