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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good reception from the fans of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, given part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Championship club. His happy association continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days after letting slip a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

The manager made alterations, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe ought to have been settled long before it eventually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to take control of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed great spirit all game, but the better opportunities always came to the visitors. The winger should have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the bar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, registering three key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap once again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to coolly convert by a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since erased. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who rested several key individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good situation in the Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the end, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Look Good

That made for an in the end routine evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to make the showpiece. There is remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.