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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the display," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a good reception from the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. This happy association was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after letting slip a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity home crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and perhaps should have been settled long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of fight throughout, but the better opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's kick which came off the crossbar, and Delap started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering three assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from the forward laid on Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as Delap again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to coolly slot past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who rested several first-choice individuals with that goal 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 league," he said. "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 almost got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed manager at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

The result made for an ultimately straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have progressed to reach the final. Much remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant tick for Rosenior.