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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough tie; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, considering part of his family hail from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Tigers. His positive connection was extended with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed home support clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his XI. The match could and maybe should have been decided long before it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

But, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to assume control of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which came off the crossbar, and Delap began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, providing three assists. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from the forward teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as the provider again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to achieving a return to the top division under their manager, who rested several key players with that aim in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good situation in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a positive example of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows very well.

Cup Omens Look Good

That resulted in an ultimately routine evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the final. There is still work in that respect, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.