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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side fighting for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but Hull are a strong team and it was a tough tie; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Rosenior holds this city close to his heart, considering some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in charge of the Tigers. This happy association continued with a commanding display from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The packed home crowd evidently sensed it too, but the London side handled the challenge with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent opportunities to put their side ahead in the opening period.

But, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a marvellous distance strike, which proved to be the catalyst for his team to take command of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

The home side showed great fight throughout, but the better opportunities consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which bounced off the crossbar, and Delap began to celebrate thinking the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering three key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his treble as the provider again delivered the decisive ball for the striker to coolly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the opening half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, 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 play like this we will be in a very good position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

There was great effort to the final whistle, and they nearly claimed a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Are Good

The result resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to make the showpiece. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.