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Against a backdrop of sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side fighting for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, given part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. This positive association continued with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days after letting slip a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity Hull support clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his XI. The tie might and perhaps should have been decided long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer opportunities consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which bounced off the bar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from there on out, registering three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his pass set up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward laid on Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider once again delivered the crucial pass for the striker to coolly convert by a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested a number of key players with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good situation in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows very well.

Cup Omens Are Good

That made for an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for the winners. They have faced 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 remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.