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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, considering some of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Tigers. His happy connection was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home support evidently sensed it too, but the London side navigated the challenge perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and perhaps should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent chances to put their side ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range strike, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to assume command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the better chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the bar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up Neto to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from the forward teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap once again played the crucial ball for the attacker to coolly slot past a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out 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 strong position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive example of how we must play."

There was great effort to the end, and they almost claimed a consolation when a substitute struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Look Good

That made for an ultimately straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the showpiece. There is still work in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.