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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the display," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from the fans of supporters. The application of the lads was superb."

Liam Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, considering some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Championship club. This happy connection continued with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal lead in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to assume command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed plenty of spirit all game, but the clearer opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced off the crossbar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass teed up his teammate to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after the second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to calmly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several key 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 strong situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive example of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive stride for their new head coach at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the showpiece. There is still done in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.