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Amid sleet, snow, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a strong team and it was a difficult fixture; I’m very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from the fans of supporters. The application of the players was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Championship club. This happy association continued with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Edge Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal advantage in the Premier League, there was a hint of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home crowd clearly felt it too, but the London side handled the task perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, enacting seven of them to his XI. The match might and perhaps should have been decided long before it eventually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward at fault for missing excellent chances to put their side ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range strike, which acted as the spark for his team to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting a trio of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great spirit throughout, but the clearer chances consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the bar, and he began to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, registering three key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling run from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. Neto then completed his hat-trick as the provider again played the decisive pass for the attacker to calmly convert by a stranded Phillips.

By that stage, the work 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 their manager, who rested a number of first-choice players with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we deserved at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a very good position in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming games this can be a positive example of how we must play."

There was great effort to the end, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas hit a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' night, and another positive stride for their recently-appointed manager at a stadium he is familiar with intimately.

FA Cup History Are Promising

The result made for an ultimately routine evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are positive from here for the winners. They have faced Hull on three previous occasions in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to reach the showpiece. Much still done in that respect, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.