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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. His positive connection was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious chances to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

The home side displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the clearer opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger should have broken the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the bar, and he started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from the forward laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap again played the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly slot past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key players with that goal 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. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive example of how we should play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the end, and they almost got a consolation when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

The result made for an in the end routine evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.