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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the display," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this city dear to him, given some of his family hail from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. His happy association continued with a commanding display from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but the London side handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The tie might and perhaps should have been decided earlier than it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for spurning glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

Hull showed great fight throughout, but the better chances consistently came to the visitors. The winger should have opened the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the bar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as Delap once again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly convert past a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

The result made for an in the end routine night's performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. Much still done in that respect, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.