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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined home side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

Liam Rosenior has this place close to his heart, given part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. This happy association was extended with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home support evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for missing glorious chances to put their side ahead in the first half.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the better chances always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the bar, and Delap began to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly convert by a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several first-choice individuals 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 position in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive stride for their new manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Are Promising

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the final. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.