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Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling breeze from the banks of the Humber, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. His positive connection continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match could and maybe should have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular long-range strike, which acted as the spark for his team to take command of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull displayed great fight throughout, but the better opportunities always came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and he started to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering three assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to finish from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from Delap laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as the provider once again delivered the crucial ball for the attacker to coolly convert past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was great effort to the end, and they almost got a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Look Good

That resulted in an ultimately routine night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much still done in that respect, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.