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Amid sleet, flurries, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a resolute Hull City side fighting for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a challenging night'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 very pleased with the performance," he said. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a good welcome from both sets of supporters. The application of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager has this place dear to him, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. His positive association continued with a commanding performance from his squad, who in the end strolled into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comfortable Win

Three days after letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity Hull crowd evidently sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task with ease.

Rosenior rang the changes, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe should have been settled long before it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward guilty of spurning glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker 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 take command of the match. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward scoring three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Response and Impact

Hull displayed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer chances always fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he rounded goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's kick which came back from the crossbar, and Delap began to run away thinking the ball had crossed the line. It had not, and by the time he understood, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from that point onward, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass teed up Neto to finish from outside the box. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Focus Shifts

Seven minutes after the second, the match was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his treble as Delap again delivered the decisive ball for the striker to calmly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the top division under their manager, who rested several key players 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," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive example of how we must play."

Hull showed plenty of effort to the end, and they nearly got a consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a post in stoppage time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a stadium he is familiar with very well.

Cup History Are Promising

That resulted in an in the end straightforward evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped signs are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. There is still work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.