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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

"We could have scored more but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a positive reception from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

The Rosenior holds this place close to his heart, given part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. His positive association was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home support clearly sensed it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps should have been settled long before it actually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range strike, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of spirit throughout, but the better opportunities consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past goalkeeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came back from the crossbar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to clear the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from there on out, providing three key passes. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to finish from outside the box. Shortly after the second half began, it was two as the forward's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Soon after the second goal, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap again delivered the decisive ball for the striker to calmly slot past a helpless Phillips.

At that point, the effort Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under their manager, who left out several first-choice 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 position in the Championship," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good example of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they nearly claimed a late goal when a substitute struck a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a stadium he knows intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

The result resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are positive 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. Much remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.