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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind off the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for the visitors.

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

Liam Chelsea manager holds 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 connection continued with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home support clearly sensed it too, but the London side navigated the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe should have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent 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 clinical frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with the forward netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull showed great fight throughout, but the better chances always fell Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the bar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, providing three assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up Neto to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the decisive ball for the striker to calmly slot by a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested a number of key 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 situation in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was great effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Are Good

The result resulted in an in the end routine evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.