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Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting wind off the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for promotion, this had all the makings of a challenging evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I am very pleased with the display," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was nice to get a good reception from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, considering some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Championship club. This positive association was extended with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the challenge perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making seven of them to his XI. The match might and maybe ought to have been decided long before it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the spark for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull showed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer chances consistently came to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the bar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, 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 moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, providing 3 assists. The first was for the opening goal as his pass set up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Sealed and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after the second, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap teed up Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his treble as the provider once again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to coolly slot by a helpless Phillips.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several first-choice players 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 very good position in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Are Good

That made for an in the end straightforward night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to reach the showpiece. Much still work in that respect, but this was another huge tick for Rosenior.