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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling breeze from the banks of the Humber, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s task for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, considering some of his family are from Hull and his successful period in charge of the Championship club. His happy association continued with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and perhaps ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular distance strike, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the better opportunities always fell to the visitors. The winger should have broken the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced back from the crossbar, and he started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to coolly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who rested several key players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive example of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

That resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the final. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.