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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. This happy association continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe should have been settled long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious chances to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

The home side displayed great fight throughout, but the clearer chances always came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the scoring when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which came back from the crossbar, and he started to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the threat.

The player 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 opening goal as his pass set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after the second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap once again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to coolly convert by a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a positive example of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they nearly got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Look Promising

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition signs 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 make the final. Much still work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.