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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber, combined with a determined home side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Rosenior holds this place dear to him, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. His happy association continued with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed Hull support evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the challenge perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and perhaps ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance strike, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side showed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came back from 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 backline had reacted to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball set up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after the second, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider once again played the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly convert past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the opening half-hour had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion 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 play like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they almost got a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup History Are Good

That resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this competition in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.