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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side fighting for promotion, this had all the makings of a challenging evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I am delighted with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Rosenior has this place close to his heart, given part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. His positive connection was extended with a commanding display from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning glorious opportunities to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range strike, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Influence

The home side showed great spirit throughout, but the clearer chances consistently came to the visitors. The winger should have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced off the crossbar, and he started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up his teammate to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward teed up his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his hat-trick as the provider once again delivered the crucial ball for the attacker to coolly convert by a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the opening half-hour had long since erased. Their focus must now switch back to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup History Look Good

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the final. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.