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Amid sleet, flurries, and a biting wind off the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a good welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager holds this place close to his heart, considering part of his family hail from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Tigers. His positive connection continued with a magnificent performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and maybe ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take command of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of spirit throughout, but the better chances consistently fell to the visitors. The winger should have broken the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which came back from the crossbar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider again delivered the crucial pass for the striker to coolly convert past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had long since erased. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we should play."

There was great endeavour to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Are Promising

The result made for an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much still done in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.