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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was excellent."

The Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Tigers. His positive connection continued with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The capacity Hull support clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

The manager rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe should have been decided earlier than it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to assume command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Influence

The home side showed great fight throughout, but the better chances consistently fell to the visitors. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came back from the bar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider again played the crucial pass for the striker to calmly slot by a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since erased. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good situation in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a good example of how we must play."

Hull showed great endeavour to the end, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive stride for their new head coach at a stadium he knows intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

The result resulted in an in the end straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to reach the final. Much still work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.