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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a swirling wind from the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I am very pleased with the display," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Rosenior has this city close to his heart, given some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. His happy connection was extended with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but the London side navigated the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and maybe should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless mood. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

Hull displayed great fight all game, but the better chances always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and he began to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble 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 calmly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had long since erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several key players 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 situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was great effort to the final whistle, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

Cup History Look Promising

The result made for an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the showpiece. Much remains to be done in that respect, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.