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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I’m delighted with the display," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager has this place dear to him, given part of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Championship club. This positive connection continued with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home crowd clearly felt it too, but the London side navigated the task perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and perhaps should have been settled long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent chances to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless mood. He broke the scoring with a marvellous distance strike, which acted as the catalyst for his team to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed plenty of fight all game, but the better opportunities always fell Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the bar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from Delap teed up Estêvão to slide into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as the provider once again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to coolly convert by a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done 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 rested several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

That made for an in the end routine night's work, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. There is still work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.