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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber, alongside a resolute home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a difficult night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult tie; I am very pleased with the performance," the manager stated. "Hull City is very special to me so it was great to get a positive reception from the fans of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city dear to him, given some of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in charge of the Tigers. This happy association was extended with a magnificent performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky tie. The capacity home crowd clearly felt it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, making seven of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent opportunities to put their side in front in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He broke the deadlock with a spectacular distance strike, which acted as the catalyst for Chelsea to take command of the match. By the final whistle, they had four, with Neto netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed plenty of spirit all game, but the better opportunities always fell Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have opened the scoring when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a similar nightmare incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came back from the bar, and he started to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from that point onward, registering 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 restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Turns

Soon after the second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his hat-trick as the provider once again delivered the crucial ball for the striker to calmly convert past a helpless goalkeeper.

By that stage, the work Hull had put in in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested a number of key players with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a strong position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a positive lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he knows very well.

Cup History Look Promising

That made for an in the end straightforward night's performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have progressed to reach the final. There is remains to be work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.