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Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult night's task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

Liam Rosenior has this place dear to him, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Tigers. His positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Three days after letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and perhaps ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume control of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull displayed great spirit throughout, but the clearer opportunities always fell to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the bar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had gone over 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 instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball set up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as the provider once again played the crucial pass for the striker to coolly slot past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had long since erased. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was great endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Are Promising

That resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the showpiece. There is still done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.