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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from both sets of fans. The application of the players was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, given part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. His positive connection continued with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular distance strike, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the better chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão ought to have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which came 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.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to finish from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's set-piece went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider once again played the crucial pass for the striker to coolly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive example of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive step forward for their new head coach at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup History Are Promising

That resulted in an in the end routine evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the showpiece. There is still work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.