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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the makings of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the display," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from the fans of supporters. The application of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager has this place dear to him, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. This positive association was extended with a commanding display from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull support clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The tie might and perhaps ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for missing glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take command of the match. By full time, they had four, with the forward netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

The home side showed great fight throughout, but the better chances always fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the bar, and Delap 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 clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, registering three key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his pass set up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as the forward's corner went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly slot past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Are Good

That made for an in the end routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the final. Much still work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.