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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling wind from the banks of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from the fans of fans. The application of the players was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager has this place dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Championship club. This happy connection continued with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home support clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe should have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for spurning glorious opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take command of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull displayed great spirit throughout, but the better chances consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the scoring when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which bounced back from the bar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from there on out, registering three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as Neto's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as Delap once again delivered the decisive ball for the striker to calmly slot past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of key individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost got a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be done in that respect, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.