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Against a backdrop of sleet, flurries, and a biting wind from the banks of the Humber Estuary, alongside a determined home side pushing hard for a top-flight place, this had all the makings of a challenging night's task for Chelsea.

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

Liam Chelsea manager holds this place dear to him, given some of his family are from Hull and his successful period in management of the Tigers. His happy connection continued with a commanding display from his team, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Edge Seals Comprehensive Win

Seventy-two hours removed from letting slip a two-goal lead in the league, there was a sniff of fragility about them going into this potentially tricky cup clash. The capacity home support clearly sensed it too, but the London side handled the task with ease.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe ought to have been settled long before it actually was, with both the Brazilian winger and the forward guilty of missing glorious chances to put Chelsea ahead in the first half.

However, fortunately for the away team, Pedro Neto was in a far more clinical mood. He broke the deadlock with a marvellous long-range effort, which proved to be the spark for his team to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had 4 goals, with Neto netting a trio of them for a brilliant three-goal haul.

The Forward's Redemption and Impact

The home side displayed great spirit throughout, but the better chances consistently came to the visitors. Estêvão should have opened the scoring when he went past goalkeeper Dillon Phillips before unbelievably shooting over. The striker then had a comparable nightmare incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which bounced back from the bar, and he started to run away thinking the ball had gone over the line. It had not, and by the time he realised, Hull's backline had responded to clear the threat.

The player 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 pass set up Neto to finish from range. Six minutes after the second half began, it was 2-0 as the forward's set-piece went straight in under the keeper's legs.

Tie Put Beyond Doubt and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a magnificent run from the forward laid on his teammate to tap into an unguarded goal. The hat-trick hero then finished his treble as Delap once again delivered the decisive pass for the striker to coolly convert past a stranded goalkeeper.

At that point, the effort Hull had done in the first thirty minutes had long since forgotten. Their focus must now return to achieving a promotion to the Premier League under their manager, who left out several first-choice players 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 Championship," he said. "Never surrender, maybe in the next games this can be a good example of how we should play."

There was plenty of endeavour to the end, and they almost got a late goal when a substitute hit a the upright in stoppage time. But this was Chelsea’s night, and another encouraging stride for their recently-appointed head coach at a place he knows intimately.

Cup History Look Promising

That resulted in an ultimately straightforward evening’s performance, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are positive from here for Chelsea. They have played Hull on three previous times in this tournament in the last decade and on each occasion, they have gone on to make the final. Much still work in that respect, but this was another huge positive for the Chelsea boss.