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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m very pleased with the display," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. His happy association continued with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home support evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the task perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The match could and perhaps should have been decided long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical mood. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular distance strike, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

Hull displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came back from the bar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from there on out, providing three assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as Neto's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider once again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive example of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a consolation when a substitute hit a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Look Good

The result made for an ultimately straightforward evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament 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 significant tick for the Chelsea boss.