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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side fighting for a top-flight place, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for Chelsea.

"We might have scored more but Hull are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I’m very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a good reception from both sets of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city dear to him, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful spell in management of the Tigers. His positive connection was extended with a magnificent display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Three days after surrendering a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity Hull support evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, enacting multiple of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and perhaps ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for spurning glorious chances to put their side in front in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more ruthless mood. He broke the scoring with a spectacular long-range effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take command of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a superb hat-trick.

Delap's Response and Influence

The home side displayed plenty of spirit throughout, but the better opportunities consistently came Chelsea’s way. The winger should have broken the deadlock when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came back from the crossbar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the danger.

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

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the match was put beyond doubt as a magnificent run from the forward teed up his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his treble as the provider once again played the crucial ball for the attacker to coolly convert by a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out a number of first-choice individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they almost got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Look Promising

The result resulted in an in the end routine night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the showpiece. Much still done in that regard, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.