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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this place close to his heart, given some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. His positive connection continued with a commanding display from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed Hull crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the task perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and perhaps should have been decided earlier than it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning excellent chances to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull displayed great spirit all game, but the better opportunities consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which bounced back from the bar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, 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, registering three assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as the provider again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly convert by a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had long since erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key players 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 league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

Cup History Look Good

That made for an in the end routine 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 reach the final. There is remains to be done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.