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Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was superb."

The Rosenior has this city close to his heart, given some of his family hail from Hull and his successful period in management of the Championship club. His positive association continued with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull support clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe should have been settled long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put Chelsea 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 deadlock with a spectacular distance effort, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

The home side displayed great fight throughout, but the better chances consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came off the bar, and he began to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to calmly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of key players with that aim in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

Cup History Are Good

That resulted in an in the end routine night's performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three other times in this competition in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to reach the final. Much still done in that respect, but this was another significant tick for the Chelsea boss.