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Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a tough fixture; 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 the fans of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior has this place close to his heart, considering some of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. His happy connection was extended with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of spurning glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume control of the match. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Impact

The home side displayed plenty of spirit throughout, but the better chances consistently fell to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the deadlock when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced 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 responded to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass teed up his teammate to finish from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was two as Neto's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider again played the decisive pass for the attacker to coolly slot by a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of key individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next games this can be a positive example of how we must play."

There was great effort to the end, and they nearly got a consolation when a substitute struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a stadium he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

That made for an ultimately routine night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.