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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting breeze off the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Tigers. This happy connection continued with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Seals Comprehensive Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The capacity home crowd evidently sensed it too, but the London side navigated the challenge with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and perhaps ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with two Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of missing glorious chances to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical mood. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull displayed great spirit throughout, but the clearer chances consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came back from the bar, and Delap began to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in through the keeper's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward teed up his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider once again played the crucial ball for the attacker to coolly convert past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to securing a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several key individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

There was great effort to the end, and they nearly got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

Cup History Look Good

The result resulted in an in the end routine evening’s work, and the cup competition signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the showpiece. Much remains to be work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.