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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was excellent."

The Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Tigers. This happy association continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days after letting slip a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting seven of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe ought to have been decided earlier than it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put their side in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

The home side displayed great fight throughout, but the better chances always fell to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came off the bar, and Delap started to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, providing three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after the second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then finished his treble as Delap once again played the crucial ball for the striker to calmly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to achieving a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

The result made for an ultimately straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. There is still done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.