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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a biting wind off the banks of the Humber, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of fans. The attitude of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager holds this place close to his heart, given part of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. This positive association was extended with a magnificent display from his squad, who ultimately strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Victory

Three days removed from surrendering a 2-0 lead in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The capacity Hull crowd clearly felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the task perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great spirit all game, but the clearer opportunities always came Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He blocked a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the crossbar, and Delap began to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to avert the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, providing 3 assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from the forward teed up Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his hat-trick as the provider once again played the decisive ball for the attacker to coolly slot by a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been erased. Their focus must now return to securing a promotion to the top division under their manager, who left out a number of key players with that goal in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good situation in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a good lesson of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they almost got a consolation when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a place he is familiar with very well.

FA Cup History Are Good

The result made for an ultimately routine night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. There is still work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.