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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club 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 superb."

The Rosenior has this city dear to him, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Tigers. This positive association continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match could and maybe should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed great fight throughout, but the clearer chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have opened the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the bar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing three assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass teed up his teammate to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the striker to coolly convert by a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of key individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned 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. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a consolation when a substitute struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

That resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.