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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough tie; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was excellent."

Liam Rosenior has this city close to his heart, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. His positive connection continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home support clearly felt it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and perhaps ought to have been settled long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of missing excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Influence

The home side showed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came back from the crossbar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his pass set up his teammate to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from the forward teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider once again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly slot by a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several first-choice players with that goal in mind.

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

There was great effort to the end, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.

Cup History Look Good

That made for an in the end routine night's performance, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to make the final. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.