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Amid freezing rain, flurries, and a swirling wind off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side fighting for promotion, this presented all the ingredients of a difficult night's task for Chelsea.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I am delighted with the performance," he said. "This club means a lot to me so it was nice to get a positive reception from the fans of supporters. The attitude of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this city close to his heart, considering some of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Tigers. This happy connection was extended with a commanding performance from his squad, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comfortable Win

Three days removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the Premier League, there was a sniff of vulnerability about them going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed home support clearly sensed it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe should have been settled long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent opportunities to put their side ahead in the opening period.

However, luckily for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a much more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to take command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Influence

Hull showed plenty of fight throughout, but the better chances consistently fell to the visitors. Estêvão should have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper the Hull stopper before inexplicably firing over. Delap then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came off the bar, and Delap started to celebrate believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he understood, Hull's backline had reacted to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely influential from there on out, providing three assists. The first was for the first goal as his through ball teed up Neto to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Soon after the second goal, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling dribble from Delap teed up his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then completed his treble as the provider once again delivered the crucial ball for the attacker to calmly convert past a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now return to securing a return to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several first-choice players with that aim in mind.

"I think we deserved at least one goal but if we perform like this we will be in a very good position in the league," he said. "Keep fighting, maybe in the next matches this can be a positive lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost got a consolation when a substitute struck a post in injury time. But this was the Blues' evening, and another positive step forward for their new head coach at a place he knows very well.

FA Cup Omens Are Promising

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s performance, and the cup competition signs are good from here for the winners. They have played Hull on three previous occasions in this competition in the past ten years and every single time, they have progressed to make the final. There is still done in that respect, but this was another huge tick for the Chelsea boss.