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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong 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 fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior has this city dear to him, considering part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. His happy association was extended with a commanding performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed Hull support evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe should have been decided long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning excellent chances to put their side in front in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of fight all game, but the better opportunities consistently came to the visitors. The winger should have opened the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the bar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as Neto's set-piece went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from the forward teed up his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the crucial pass for the striker to calmly convert by a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had long since forgotten. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice 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 very good situation in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was great endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a consolation when a substitute struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

That made for an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the final. There is still work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.