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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Rosenior holds this place close to his heart, given some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. This positive connection continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull support evidently sensed it too, but the London side navigated the task perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps should have been settled long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

But, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range strike, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed great fight throughout, but the better chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the bar, and he began to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering three key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Soon after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the decisive ball for the striker to coolly slot by a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive stride for their new manager at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup History Look Good

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.