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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a biting wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this place close to his heart, given part of his relatives hail from Hull and his successful period in management of the Championship club. This positive association continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for missing glorious chances to put their side in front in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more clinical frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular long-range strike, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to assume command of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great spirit all game, but the clearer opportunities always came to the visitors. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from there on out, providing three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to calmly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

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

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute hit a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their new manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Are Good

The result resulted in an in the end routine night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other times in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. There is still done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.