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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's task for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the lads was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, given some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. This positive connection continued with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Secures Comprehensive Win

Three days after letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match could and maybe ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

Hull displayed great fight throughout, but the better opportunities always fell to the visitors. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the crossbar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing 3 assists. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as Neto's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his treble as Delap once again delivered the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly convert by a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their priority must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of key players with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a good example of how we should 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 the Blues' evening, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

The result made for an in the end straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition omens are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the final. Much still work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.