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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling breeze off the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager has this place close to his heart, considering part of his relatives are from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Tigers. His positive connection was extended with a commanding performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Victory

Three days after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed Hull support clearly sensed it too, but the London side navigated the task perfectly.

Rosenior rang the changes, enacting multiple of them to his XI. The match could and perhaps ought to have been settled earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning excellent opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Impact

The home side showed plenty of fight throughout, but the clearer chances consistently fell Chelsea’s way. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which came off the bar, and he started to run away believing the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had responded to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from there on out, registering three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball set up Neto to score from range. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in through Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his hat-trick as the provider again played the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since erased. Their focus must now return to achieving a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested a number of 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 strong situation in the league," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a good lesson of how we must play."

Hull showed great effort to the end, and they nearly got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

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