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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting wind off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive reception from both sets of fans. The application of the players was excellent."

The Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. This happy connection continued with a magnificent display from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comfortable Win

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe should have been decided long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put their side in front in the first half.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the better chances consistently fell to the visitors. The winger should have broken the scoring when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the bar, and Delap began to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from there on out, registering 3 assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from the forward teed up his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his treble as the provider once again played the crucial ball for the attacker to coolly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since erased. Their focus must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of key individuals with that aim 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 league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

That made for an in the end straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped 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 final. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.