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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this had 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 tie; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was excellent."

Liam Rosenior has this city close to his heart, considering some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Championship club. His positive association was extended with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home support clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his XI. The match could and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which proved to be the spark for his team to take command of the match. By full time, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

The home side showed great fight all game, but the clearer opportunities consistently came to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance 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 reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, providing three assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his hat-trick as the provider again played the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly convert by a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had been erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

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

FA Cup Omens Are Good

That resulted in an in the end routine evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the final. There is still done in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.