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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a biting wind from the banks of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given part of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Championship club. This happy association was extended with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed home crowd evidently sensed it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and perhaps should have been decided long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent opportunities to put their side ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, 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 spark for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed great fight all game, but the clearer opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which came back from the crossbar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up Neto to score from outside the box. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly slot by a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

That resulted in an in the end routine night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the final. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.