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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute home side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this place close to his heart, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. His happy connection continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The match could and perhaps should have been decided long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the better opportunities consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced back from the bar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, providing 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball set up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as Neto's set-piece went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap teed up Estêvão to tap into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as the provider again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to coolly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the top division under their manager, who left out a number of key players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good position in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good example of how we must play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

Cup Omens Are Good

That made for an ultimately straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. There is still work in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.