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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a difficult night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive reception from the fans of supporters. The application of the lads was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, given part of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Championship club. His positive association was extended with a commanding display from his team, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comprehensive Win

Three days removed from surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home crowd clearly felt it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe ought to have been decided earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for missing glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

But, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a much more clinical mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take control of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

The home side displayed great fight throughout, but the better chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which bounced back from the bar, and he started to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders 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, providing three assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Turns

Soon after the second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his treble as Delap once again delivered the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly slot by a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now switch back to securing a promotion to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of first-choice individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Look Promising

That made for an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the final. Much still work in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.