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Against a backdrop of freezing rain, snow, and a swirling breeze from the waters of the Humber, combined with a resolute home side pushing hard for promotion, this presented all the makings of a challenging evening’s work for the visitors.

"We might have added to our tally but Hull are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I am very pleased with the display," the manager stated. "Hull City means a lot to me so it was great to get a good reception from both sets of fans. The attitude of the players was superb."

Liam Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. This positive association continued with a commanding performance from his team, who ultimately sauntered into the next round of the FA Cup.

Deadly Finishing Secures Comfortable Win

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a 2-0 lead in the Premier League, there was a hint of fragility about them going into this intriguing tie. The capacity Hull support evidently sensed it too, but the London side handled the challenge with ease.

The manager made alterations, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie might and maybe ought to have been decided earlier than it eventually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap at fault for spurning excellent chances to put Chelsea ahead in the opening period.

But, luckily for the visitors, their Portuguese attacker was in a far more ruthless frame of mind. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range strike, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume control of proceedings. By full time, they had four, with Neto scoring three of them for a superb hat-trick.

The Forward's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed plenty of fight all game, but the clearer opportunities always fell to the visitors. The winger ought to have broken the deadlock when he went past keeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably firing over. The striker then had a comparable horror moment in front of goal against his former club.

He deflected a the goalkeeper's kick which came back from the bar, and he started to run away believing the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to clear the danger.

Delap had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was hugely instrumental from there on out, registering three assists. The first was for the first goal as his pass set up Neto to score from range. Six minutes after the restart, it was 2-0 as Neto's set-piece went directly in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Soon after Neto’s second, the tie was effectively ended as a magnificent run from Delap laid on his teammate to slide into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his hat-trick as the provider once again delivered the crucial pass for the striker to coolly slot past a stranded goalkeeper.

By that stage, the effort Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had been forgotten. Their focus must now switch back to securing a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who rested several key individuals 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 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 plenty of endeavour to the final whistle, and they almost claimed a consolation 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 manager at a stadium he knows intimately.

FA Cup History Are Good

That resulted in an in the end routine night's performance, and the cup competition omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to reach the final. There is remains to be done in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.