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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m delighted with the display," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, given part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. This happy connection was extended with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Three days after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed home support evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps should have been decided earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to assume command of the match. By full time, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Influence

Hull showed great spirit all game, but the better chances always came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the crossbar, 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 danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing three key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his pass teed up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his hat-trick as the provider again played the crucial ball for the striker to coolly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key players with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was great effort to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive step forward for their new manager at a place he knows very well.

Cup History Are Good

That resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the cup competition omens 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 gone on to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.