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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a biting wind off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I am very pleased with the display," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior has this place close to his heart, considering part of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. His positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 lead 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 Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for spurning glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

The home side showed great fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities always fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came off the crossbar, and Delap started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up his teammate to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then finished his treble as Delap once again played the decisive ball for the striker to calmly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had long since erased. Their focus must now switch back to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good example of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they almost claimed a consolation when a substitute hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

That resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.