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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a biting breeze from the waters of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging evening’s task for Chelsea.

"We could have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I’m delighted with the display," the manager stated. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from both sets of fans. The application of the lads was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager has this place dear to him, considering some of his relatives are from Hull and his successful spell in charge of the Championship club. This happy association was extended with a magnificent display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Clinical Edge Secures Comprehensive Victory

Three days after letting slip a 2-0 advantage in the league, there was a hint of vulnerability about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home crowd clearly felt it too, but the London side navigated the task with ease.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his starting lineup. The match might and maybe ought to have been decided long before it eventually was, with two the Brazilian winger and Liam Delap at fault for missing excellent chances to put Chelsea in front in the first half.

However, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a much more clinical frame of mind. He opened the deadlock with a spectacular distance effort, which acted as the spark for his team to assume control of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward scoring a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

The home side showed great fight throughout, but the clearer opportunities always came to the visitors. Estêvão ought to have broken the scoring when he rounded keeper Dillon Phillips before inexplicably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare moment in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced off the bar, and he began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had reacted to avert the threat.

Delap had his head in his hands after that miss, but he was immensely instrumental from there on out, registering three key passes. The first was for the opening goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's set-piece went straight in under Phillips's legs.

Contest Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after the second goal, the tie was put beyond doubt as a dazzling dribble from Delap laid on Estêvão to tap into an unguarded goal. Neto then finished his treble as Delap once again delivered the decisive pass for the attacker to calmly convert by a helpless goalkeeper.

At that point, the work Hull had put in in the first half-hour had been forgotten. Their priority must now switch back to securing a return to the Premier League under Sergej Jakirovic, who rested several first-choice individuals with that aim in mind.

"In my opinion we earned at least one goal but if we play 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 good lesson of how we must play."

There was plenty of effort to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another positive step forward for their recently-appointed head coach at a stadium he knows intimately.

FA Cup Omens Are Good

The result resulted in an in the end routine evening’s performance, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three other times in this tournament in the past ten years and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the showpiece. Much still done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.