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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling wind off the banks of the Humber, alongside a determined Hull City side fighting for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s task for the visitors.

"We might have scored more but the opposition are a good team and it was a difficult fixture; I am delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a positive welcome from the fans of fans. The attitude of the players was superb."

The Rosenior holds this city dear to him, considering some of his family hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. This positive connection continued with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Edge Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home crowd clearly sensed it too, but Rosenior's men handled the task perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and perhaps should have been settled long before it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent chances to put their side ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the scoring with a spectacular long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume control of the match. By full time, they had four, with the forward netting a trio of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed great fight throughout, but the better opportunities always fell Chelsea’s way. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips 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 kick which bounced off the bar, and Delap began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was hugely influential from there on out, registering 3 key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his pass teed up his teammate to finish from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as Neto's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Turns

Soon after the second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent dribble from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as the provider once again played the decisive pass for the attacker to calmly convert by a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the first half-hour had been erased. Their priority must now switch back to securing a promotion to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key players with that goal in mind.

"I think we earned at least one goal but if we perform 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 lesson of how we should play."

Hull showed great effort to the final whistle, and they almost got a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he knows very well.

Cup Omens Look Good

The result made for an in the end straightforward evening’s work, and the cup competition omens 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 gone on to make the showpiece. Much remains to be done in that regard, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.