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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m very pleased with the display," 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 excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. This happy connection was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The packed Hull support clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match could and perhaps should have been decided long before it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing glorious chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the clearer chances consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which bounced back from the bar, and he began to celebrate 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 there on out, registering three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as the provider again played the crucial pass for the striker to calmly convert past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since erased. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice individuals 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 very good situation in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we must play."

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup History Are Good

That resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.