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Amid freezing rain, snow, and a biting wind from the waters of the Humber, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I’m very pleased with the display," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. His happy connection continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and perhaps should have been decided long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent opportunities to put their side in front in the first half.

But, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless mood. He broke the scoring with a marvellous long-range strike, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

Hull displayed great fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the bar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass teed up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as the forward's corner went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap once again played the crucial ball for the striker to calmly slot past a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had long since erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of key players 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 Championship," the Hull manager commented. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a consolation when a substitute struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Are Promising

That resulted in 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 tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the showpiece. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.