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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting wind off the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined home side fighting for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. His positive connection continued with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home support clearly felt it too, but the London side handled the challenge with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe should have been settled long before it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed plenty of spirit throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger should have broken the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which came off the bar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering three key passes. The opening was for the opening 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 straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as the provider once again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly slot by a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to reach the final. There is still done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.