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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the display," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive reception from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior holds this place close to his heart, given part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. This happy association was extended with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed home crowd evidently sensed it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put their side in front in the opening period.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side showed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger should have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which bounced off the crossbar, and he began to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering 3 assists. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball set up his teammate to score from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly convert by a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to securing a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he knows intimately.

Cup History Are Promising

The result made for an ultimately straightforward night's performance, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the showpiece. Much remains to be done in that respect, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.