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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this place dear to him, considering some of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Championship club. This positive connection was extended with a commanding display from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The match could and perhaps should have been decided long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for missing glorious opportunities to put their side in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with the forward scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed great fight all game, but the clearer chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper 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 clearance which came back from the crossbar, and Delap began to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to calmly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the top division under their manager, who rested a number of key players 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 very good situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive example of how we should play."

There was great endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup History Look Good

The result made for an in the end routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.