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Amid sleet, snow, and a biting breeze off the waters of the Humber Estuary, combined with a determined Hull City side pushing hard for promotion, this had all the ingredients of a challenging night's work for the visitors.

"We could have added to our tally but the opposition are a good team and it was a tough fixture; I am very pleased with the performance," he said. "This club is very special to me so it was nice to get a good welcome from the fans of fans. The application of the players was excellent."

Liam Chelsea manager has this city close to his heart, considering part of his relatives hail from Hull and his enjoyable spell in management of the Tigers. His happy connection was extended with a commanding display from his squad, who in the end sauntered into the next round of the famous old competition.

Clinical Finishing Seals Comfortable Victory

Seventy-two hours removed from surrendering a 2-0 advantage in the Premier League, there was a sniff of fragility about Chelsea going into this intriguing tie. The packed home crowd evidently felt it too, but the London side navigated the challenge perfectly.

The manager rang the changes, making multiple of them to his XI. The tie could and maybe ought to have been settled earlier than it actually was, with both Estêvão Willian and Liam Delap guilty of missing excellent chances to put their side in front in the first half.

But, fortunately for the visitors, Pedro Neto was in a far more ruthless mood. He opened the deadlock with a marvellous distance effort, which proved to be the spark for Chelsea to assume command of proceedings. By the final whistle, they had four, with the forward scoring three of them for a brilliant hat-trick.

Delap's Redemption and Influence

Hull showed plenty of spirit throughout, but the clearer chances consistently came to the visitors. The winger ought to have opened the deadlock when he went past keeper the Hull stopper before unbelievably shooting over. Delap then had a similar horror incident in front of goal against his old team.

He deflected a Phillips's clearance which came back from the bar, and Delap began to celebrate thinking the ball had gone over the line. It hadn’t, and by the time he realised, Hull's defenders had responded to avert the danger.

The player had his head in his hands after that moment, but he was immensely instrumental from that point onward, registering three assists. The opening was for the first goal as his through ball set up Neto to finish from range. Shortly after the restart, it was two as the forward's corner went straight in through Phillips's legs.

Tie Sealed and Attention Shifts

Seven minutes after Neto’s second, the match was effectively ended as a dazzling run from the forward teed up his teammate to tap into an empty net. The hat-trick hero then completed his treble as the provider once again played the crucial pass for the attacker to calmly convert by a stranded Phillips.

At that point, the work Hull had done in the opening thirty minutes had been erased. Their priority must now return to achieving a return to the top division under Sergej Jakirovic, who left out several key players with that aim in mind.

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

Hull showed plenty of endeavour to the end, and they almost claimed a late goal when Lewis Koumas struck 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 place he is familiar with intimately.

Cup Omens Look Promising

That resulted in an in the end routine night's work, and the FA Cup-shaped omens are good from here for Chelsea. They have faced Hull on three other occasions in this tournament in the last decade and every single time, they have gone on to make the final. Much still work in that regard, but this was another significant positive for the Chelsea boss.