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Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Rosenior holds this city dear to him, considering some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. This positive connection continued with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The packed Hull crowd clearly sensed it too, but the London side navigated the challenge perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The match might and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

But, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

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

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came off the bar, and Delap started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball set up his teammate to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as Neto's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then finished his hat-trick as the provider again played the crucial ball for the striker to coolly slot by a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who rested a number of key players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good example of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Are Good

That resulted in an in the end routine evening’s work, and the cup competition omens are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. There is still done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for Rosenior.