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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented 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 fixture; I am delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this place close to his heart, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Championship club. This happy association continued with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular distance strike, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to assume control of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

The home side showed great fight throughout, but the better opportunities always came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and he began to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as the provider again played the crucial pass for the striker to calmly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now switch back to securing a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of key players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good situation in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive lesson of how we must 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 stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Are Good

That made for an ultimately straightforward night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs 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 make the final. There is remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.