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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind off the banks of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the lads was excellent."

The Rosenior holds this city dear to him, given part of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Championship club. His happy connection continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comprehensive Win

Three days after letting slip a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe should have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious chances to put their side in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical mood. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull showed plenty of spirit all game, but the better opportunities consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came back from the crossbar, and he started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his hat-trick as the provider again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly convert past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

There was great effort to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Are Good

The result made for an in the end straightforward night's work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. Much remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.