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Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a good welcome from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the players was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Championship club. This happy association continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Three days removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed Hull support clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his XI. The match might and maybe should have been settled long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious chances 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 strike, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed great spirit all game, but the better chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the bar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after the second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from the forward laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his hat-trick as Delap once again played the decisive pass for the striker to calmly convert 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 securing a return to the top division under their manager, who rested several first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved 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 next games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they almost got a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a place he knows very well.

Cup History Look Good

That 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 played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much still done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.