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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The application of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, considering some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. His happy connection continued with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity Hull crowd 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 could and maybe ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless mood. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the catalyst for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side showed great fight throughout, but the clearer chances consistently came Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced back from the crossbar, and Delap started to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his hat-trick as the provider again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to coolly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now return to securing a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several key individuals with that goal 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 upcoming games this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they almost claimed a consolation when a substitute hit a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup Omens Look Good

The result made for an ultimately routine night's work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. There is remains to be done in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.