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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, flurries, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

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

The Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, given some of his relatives are from Hull and his enjoyable period in management of the Championship club. This happy connection continued with a commanding performance from his team, who in the end strolled into the next round of the famous old competition.

Deadly Finishing Seals Comprehensive Win

Three days removed from letting slip a two-goal advantage in the league, there was a sniff of vulnerability about Chelsea going into this intriguing cup clash. The packed Hull crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

Rosenior made alterations, enacting seven of them to his starting lineup. The tie might and maybe should have been decided earlier than it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and the forward at fault for missing glorious opportunities to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the away team, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume command of proceedings. By full time, they had 4 goals, with the forward netting three of them for a superb three-goal haul.

Delap's Response and Impact

Hull showed great fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities consistently fell Chelsea’s way. The winger should have broken the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his old team.

He blocked a the goalkeeper's clearance which bounced off the crossbar, and he started to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to clear the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, providing 3 key passes. The opening was for the first goal as his pass teed up his teammate to score from outside the box. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as the forward's corner went directly in under Phillips's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Soon after the second, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward teed up Estêvão to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as Delap again played the decisive pass for the striker to coolly slot by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first half-hour had long since forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to achieving a return to the Premier League under their manager, who left out a number of first-choice individuals 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 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 consolation when Lewis Koumas struck a the upright in injury time. But this was Chelsea’s evening, and another encouraging stride for their new head coach at a place he knows very well.

Cup History Are Good

That made for an in the end routine night's performance, and the cup competition signs are positive from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the past ten years and every single time, they have gone on to make the showpiece. Much remains to be done in that respect, but this was another significant positive for Rosenior.