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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I’m 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 application of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, given part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. His positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed Hull support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

The manager made alterations, enacting seven of them to his XI. The match might and maybe ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent chances to put their side ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great spirit all game, but the clearer chances consistently came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the crossbar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus 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 empty net. Neto then finished his treble as Delap again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to calmly slot by a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key individuals 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 Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we should play."

There was great effort to the end, and they almost got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Good

That resulted in an in the end routine evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the final. There is remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.