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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind off the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side fighting for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition 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 attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior has this city dear to him, given part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. This positive association continued with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home support evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and maybe ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead 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 long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to assume control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed plenty of fight throughout, but the better opportunities always came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have opened the deadlock when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came back from the bar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball set up his teammate to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap teed up Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the striker to calmly slot past a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had been erased. Their focus must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of 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 situation in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good example of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Look Good

The result made for an in the end routine night's performance, and the cup competition omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. Much still done in that regard, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.