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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, considering some of his family hail from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Championship club. His happy association was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed home crowd evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match could and perhaps should have been decided long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed great fight throughout, but the better opportunities always came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced off the bar, and Delap began 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 avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the striker to calmly slot past a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under their manager, who rested several first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"I think 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 lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a consolation when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Are Good

That made for an in the end straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to make the final. Much remains to be done in that respect, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.