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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling wind from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this place close to his heart, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Tigers. This happy association continued with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting seven of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps ought to have been settled long before it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for spurning glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to assume command of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the better chances always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have opened the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which came back from the bar, and Delap began to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap once again played the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly convert by a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their focus must now return to securing a promotion to the top division under their manager, who rested several key players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

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

FA Cup History Are Promising

The result made for an in the end routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the final. There is still done in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.