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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze from the banks of the Humber, combined with a resolute Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a difficult evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but the opposition are a strong team and it was a difficult tie; I’m very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was great to get a positive welcome from the fans of supporters. The application of the lads was excellent."

The Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. His positive connection continued with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the fifth round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours after surrendering a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The packed Hull support evidently felt it too, but Rosenior's men navigated the challenge perfectly.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie could and maybe ought to have been decided earlier than it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap guilty of missing glorious opportunities to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

However, fortunately for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the scoring with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the catalyst for his team to take control of the match. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

Hull displayed great fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a similar horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a Phillips's kick which bounced back from the crossbar, and he started to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to clear the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely influential from there on out, registering 3 key passes. The opening was for the opening goal as his through ball teed up his teammate to score from outside the box. Shortly after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's corner went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Turns

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a dazzling run from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. Neto then finished his treble as the provider once again played the crucial ball for the attacker to coolly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since erased. Their priority must now switch back to achieving a promotion to the top division under their manager, who rested several key individuals with that goal in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play like this we will be in a strong situation in the league," the Hull manager commented. "Never surrender, maybe in the upcoming matches this can be a good 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 post in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their new manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

Cup History Look Good

That made for an ultimately straightforward evening’s work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the final. Much still work in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.