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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling wind from the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the display," 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 superb."

Liam Rosenior has this place close to his heart, given some of his family hail from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Tigers. This positive connection continued with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed home crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and perhaps should have been settled long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

Hull displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the better chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which came back from the bar, and he 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 reacted to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as Neto's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap once again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly slot by a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice individuals with that aim 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," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Look Promising

The result resulted in an in the end routine evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the final. There is remains to be done in that respect, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.