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Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The application of the lads was excellent."

The Rosenior has this place dear to him, given part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. His positive association was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Win

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 intriguing cup clash. The capacity home crowd clearly felt it too, but the London side navigated the challenge with ease.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The match might and maybe should have been decided long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He broke 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 Neto scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull displayed great spirit throughout, but the clearer chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which bounced back from the bar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from the forward teed up his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider once again played the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly slot by a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several key individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Are Good

The result resulted in an in the end routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the showpiece. There is still done in that respect, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.