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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined home side fighting for promotion, this had all the makings of a difficult night's work for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I am delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given part of his family hail from Hull and his successful period in management of the Tigers. His positive connection continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Secures Comfortable Victory

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

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull showed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer chances always fell to the visitors. The winger should have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the bar, and Delap started to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing three assists. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Soon after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then finished his treble as the provider again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly convert by a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of key individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive example of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

The result resulted in an ultimately straightforward night'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 past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be done in that regard, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.