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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was excellent."

Liam Rosenior has this city dear to him, considering some of his family are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Tigers. This happy connection continued with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Win

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The capacity Hull crowd evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making seven of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe should have been decided earlier than it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to assume control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Influence

The home side displayed great spirit all game, but the better opportunities always fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the deadlock when he rounded goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came off the bar, and he began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from that point onward, providing three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice individuals 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 very good situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Look Promising

That resulted in an in the end routine night's work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the final. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.